Strength does not always mean victory
by HolyGrail2007
Summary: A collection of Joey x Mai fics. Rated PG-13 for strong language and violence. RR
1. Strength does not always mean victory

He stood alone on the platform, the center of Ra's wrath. Everyone else could only look on in horror as the gigantic dragon reared its head, fire starting to form at its ugly snout. He couldn't move, not only was he awestruck at the impressive sight, but also shackles bound to his legs tightly clamped around his legs, digging into the skin and drawing blood to prevent him from going any further. Ra's controller, another one of those creepy Ancient Egypt guys, but ten, no, a hundred times creepier then Marik, laughed with perverse pleasure as Ra reared up his head and charged the blast.  
  
"Forget him!" Yugi, under control of the pharaoh spirit, shouted out to Ra's controller. "I'm the one you want!"  
  
"But I'm having far too much fun!" The man shouted before letting out on of those laugh's that got the skin crawling. I wanted to call out, rescue him, or say something, but I was quaking with fear at the sight of Ra, I wouldn't have been able to move if someone robbed me right then and there.  
  
Ra's controller pointed, a long narrow finger stretched out and pointed towards Joey, the man on the platform. Obeying its master, Ra breathed out the charged up breath at him. Joey had shut his eyes and apparently prepared himself for the onslaught, but he was exposed up there, nothing to hide behind, nothing to block the hit, and the fire washed all over him. The light was intense, I couldn't see, but I didn't need my eyes to know the effect. Joey had not started screaming until a few seconds after the fire wave hit, but that noise, piercing through the very icy bit of my soul, was something I would hear for all time. It was a loud, piercing scream, one that I thought Joey, with all his light-heartedness and humor, could never produce. It sounded terrible; like it was not just normal pain he was experiencing.  
  
"Joey!" I finally shouted, scrambling up to try and reach him. I reached my hand into the fire and tried to grab him, but once I stuck my hand in, I retracted it on a reflex. Looking at my hand, I noticed that although there were no visible scars or marks, it still hurt like a bitch, worse then any physical pain I had ever felt. When the fire finally subsided, and I was able to get sight of Joey, my knees quaked, and my heart faltered. Just like my hand, there didn't appear to be any marks on him, but he still looked like shit. The shackles around his legs had been released, and he stood there, breathing heavily, for a few seconds. Then he fell face-first into the ground. I ignored all rational thought; Ra still towered over us both, and ran over to him.  
  
"What do you hope to do?" Ra's controller asked me. I shot the bastard The Bird without looking at him. Joey was not conscious, and he looked extremely fatigued, so I grabbed his limp body and carried it away. He was heavy, but that was the least of my worries as I looked at the concerned group of people that was Yugi and his friends.  
  
"Take care of that asshole." I told Yugi before walking off, Joey's fragile body still clutched in my arms.  
  
There weren't any medical staff nearby, but I knew a thing or two about saving someone's life. At first I wasn't sure where to start because I didn't know exactly what needed to be treated. I cut open Joey's shirt with a pair of scissors and attached defribulator pads to his chest. The machine analyzed that his heart was still pumping constantly. The boy, I guess it's a little unfair to say boy because he was 17 now, was also breathing, rather steadily, so I didn't need to assist in that way. So I sat there, and I waited. While he was asleep, he was sweating; his forehead and chest had sweat condensing quickly. I toweled it off, trying to make him comfortable. Although Tristan and Serenity came in once to check on him, I assured them that I was in control, Mai Valentine is a competent woman who can do anything, I said, even though I knew that sentence was a lie. I'm sure they did too, but Serenity said that she would take over when I got tired, and then she and Tristan went to cheer on the pharaoh.  
  
"Send that fucker's ass back to Oblivion or wherever the hell else things go." I ordered Yugi mentally. I turned my gaze back to Joey, and found myself staring a little. He had been working out, and it showed, his muscles rising and falling as he breathed. Were situations not so desperate, I would be tempted to do...other things, but now I had to make sure he recovered.  
  
I left briefly to get some water, and as soon as I came back, Joey's eyes opened. A little, very little. I could see tears in his eyes, so he probably would not have been able to tell who I was.  
  
"Looks like you got yourself hurt pretty bad, Joseph." I said, immediately bringing up my carefree, tough attitude that I normally held whenever the boy was conscious.  
  
"Mai." He said weakly. I felt my heart melting, and couldn't keep up my strong façade.  
  
"You worried me, you know. It sounded like you were in a lot of pain."  
  
"I am, but...I'm glad, that it was...me and not...you." He said. I wasn't going to tell him about my hand, which still ached like a mother. He was bad enough already, why tell him things he didn't want to hear. I handed him the water, and guided it to his lips. He drank slowly.  
  
"Mai." He said. "I don't...I don't want you...to see me like this." He said.  
  
"You see me weak, I can see you in pain." I said simply. It was true, he'd seen me falter, and he'd seen me in pain. Even after Battle City, he had come to my rescue when I found myself on the side of a sick, twisted duelist who strapped my lower body in a metal case that got hotter and hotter as I lost Life Points. I had been unable to move on, the pain in my legs blinding and searing, disrupting all of my thoughts, until he snapped me out of it.  
  
"You...aren't weak." He said, in ragged breaths. It no longer sounded like it hurt him to talk, but he always sounded out of breath. "You...never were. You find ways...to always win." It was true, even after losses in Battle City; I had come back and won time after time. But they didn't satisfy me, in fact, I was only really satisfied when I won or lost for a good reason.  
  
"You've taught me something, and you've said this expressly." I told him, my eyes tearing up now. I leaned up close and whispered into his ear.  
  
"Strength...does not always mean victory." I said. He smiled, and then lay back down to rest.  
  
Joey's mother came in soon after. I had told her that he was asleep, but he wasn't in any critical conditions.  
  
"You are...Mai. I've heard a lot about you from Joey and Serenity." She said. She'd never met me, but she didn't need to. I watched her son, and stopped him from making stupid mistakes. I saved her daughter's eyes, or rather; I helped Joey do so by giving up my own chances to take the money.  
  
"You're an amazing woman." Ms. Wheeler said to me. "Serenity told me about how you were the first to save him despite the danger that was still present." I doubt she knew anything about Ra, but Serenity was good at telling stories, she probably told something really convincing.  
  
"You're beautiful and strong. It's easy to see why my son enjoys being around you." This statement shook me up, shook me up more then I would have ever admitted.  
  
"Well, yeah." I said, trying not to blush at the praise I was not used to receiving. She then left to probably talk to Serenity; I went back to watching Joey. He was still asleep, but he was no longer sweating, so that was probably something of an accomplishment.  
  
Serenity then took over, because she said I looked exhausted. Looking at my watch, I noticed I had been watching Joey for a couple of hours. Ms. Wheeler came up and spoke to me before I went to sleep.  
  
"Joey woke up a little when I went to see him. The first thing he did was ask about you. You are well?"  
  
"Just tired." I responded. "It's exhausting watching him, even when he's asleep."  
  
"No argument there. Mai, let us be honest women." Ms. Wheeler said. I stared at her, bewildered for a minute.  
  
"You're feelings are evident enough to me, so I want to give you some advice. It's not easy to be liked if you're a strong woman. If you ever want to have children, there are times when you must be weak as well as times to be strong." When she said this, I turned redder then Ra's fire. That sentence stayed with me, even after Ms. Wheeler left, and I drifted to sleep.  
  
Yugi had defeated the sick bastard, and I was happy, real happy. I went to check on Joey to find Tristan and Serenity were both watching him, yet both of them had fallen asleep in chairs. I woke the two lovebirds up, and they left to go get something to drink. I looked back at Joey, and as if sensing I was there, he woke up. He looked a lot better, and he sat up, and with assistance, eventually stood up. He looked like a dork, wearing just a pair of jeans and socks.  
  
"You..." I started, and for the first time in my life I was unsure about what to say. "You looked better. Yesterday, you looked like shit." I was trying to be flat, so Joey wouldn't see in my violet eyes and know that I was so worried about him.  
  
"I said before." He was able to talk without sounding ragged. "You're not supposed to see that side of me." He moved forward, and like a class A klutz, he tripped, and fell into my arms. I stumbled a little as his weight, and then hugged him.  
  
"It must have...been hard on you. Watching me like that." He said.  
  
"Yeah, but I felt weak." I admitted softly. "I couldn't do anything because I was so afraid. I really did want to show you that I would have dove headfirst into that fire and pull you out with my teeth if I had to." I was trying to return to my take-everything-with-a-grain-of-salt attitude. He broke the hug, and looked at me with a look that was mellow even the hardest of hearts. He then whispered to me. I knew what he was going to say, but it still surprised me when he said it.  
  
"Strength...does not always mean victory." 


	2. Guardian Angel with an Attitude

At first, all I could think about was that I was glad Serenity was not there. The sick, twisted maniacal bastard would have surely broken her. My father, no, not my father, it was a drooling, swearing drunkard who had killed my father and assumed his identity, had come home, and I was instantly ready for trouble.  
  
"What the hell you staring at!" He shouted, slashing at my face with a short bladed kitchen knife. The force of the attack knocked me done, and I grumbled, trying to stand back up. He followed by slicing me across the chest and arm, my blood dripping on the already filthy carpet.  
  
"Damn worthless boy!" He slashed again. His strikes were not deep, but I could feel my vision blurring. Everytime he came home like this, it felt like it would be the last night of my life. But somehow, the next morning, I was still alive. It still felt like I'd die, my father, in a drunken haze, would slash my neck or my wrists, and I'd bleed to death. I tried to move away, and was slashed across the back. I yelped, and in anger, he slashed the back of my legs. I fell to the ground.  
  
"Weak, pathetic boy. You can't even get up!" He said, kicking me in the side. Then he took the knife and carved a line down my back, like an autopsy cut. I felt it burn, and yet I couldn't scream, screaming would make the knife go deeper, or the cut go longer.  
  
Then I heard a gunshot. My first reaction was my father had grabbed the derringer from above the fireplace and drove the thing into my head, but now, that would have been too merciful for that demon.  
  
"Get away from the boy, motherfucker!" Came a strangely familiar voice. It was loud and female, and very, very sexy. I tried to turn my head, but I was greeted by another blistering hot stab in my back.  
  
"I said move, bitch!" Another gunshot, and I heard the clang of metal fall to the ground. Ms. Sexy must have shot my father's wrist, if she was the one shooting, and made him dropped the knife. There were no more stabs, thank whatever God was responsible for that, but I couldn't see, barely hear, and all I could feel was my blood oozing out of my wounds. I heard Ms. Sexy say something else, another gunshot, then a thud. I couldn't move, afraid to see if my father had wrestled the gun from Ms. Sexy and killed her. I heard footsteps, the heavy clacking of boots, come over towards me. My father had been wearing heavy boots, so I immediately feared the worst. Steeling myself, I tensed every muscle in my body, preparing myself for the searing kiss of Ms. Sexy's gunto be inserted to my temple and fired until nothing was left.  
  
"Oh shit, you're in awful shape." Came a voice that wasn't my father. In fact, it was vaguely familiar. I tried to move.  
  
"Quit moving, Joseph." She ordered. "I'll take care of you now." She said. Mai? Was it Mai? I would never have expected her to come help me, although she was badass enough to come into a house with a psychotic fuck like my dad with guns blazing. I felt her move me, and although I could barely see, I caught a whiff of Mai's perfume and I saw her golden hair dangling in front of my face.  
  
"M...Mai?" I called out, desperate to believe this wasn't a dream and I wasn't still getting the shit kicked out of me.  
  
"How about shutting up. Talking will make it worse." She responded. Yep, it was Mai. Her boisterous attitude was something that no dream could mimic. I felt her lay me down on something leather, and soon deduced it was her car. She drove for about 5 minutes in the fast, breakneck way that she drove in, and then brought the car to a slower stop, not wanting me to roll around. She picked me up again and walked through a few dimly lit hallways to her apartment. My vision had finally cleared, and it was similar to the one my father and I lived in: kitchen, two bedrooms, and a living room. She brought me into one of the bedrooms, and then left the room. She came back quickly afterwards with something in her hand  
  
"Can you talk now?" She asked quietly.  
  
"Barely." I tried to smile.  
  
"Drink this, its just water." She ordered, handing me a grossly oversized novelty cup filled nearly to the brim. I downed it quickly, and it helped. My vision cleared, and I could make out where I was.  
  
"I'll be right back." She said. I regarded my surroundings. I was laying on a large queen sized bed with the quilt disgustingly bathed in my blood. I tried to stand u, but the jarring pain in my legs forced me to sit down.  
  
"Don't walk. Not yet." Mai returned holding a white first aid kit. She opened it and dabbed some peroxide on a cotton sponge like the ones Serenity used to apply her makeup.  
  
"Shut your eyes." She commanded. I did so, and I immediately felt the sting of the peroxide on my open cuts, but it was nothing compared to those searing knife wounds I experienced a little while ago. She tossed the sponge, now completely red, into a small trashcan.  
  
"Why are...you doing this?" I asked.  
  
"Shut up." She ordered again, wiping my face again. She then applied some sterile bandages to my face. I hoped I didn't look pathetic to her; something I never wanted to do. I wanted her to see me as strong, but it was hard to be strong when you were bleeding everywhere.  
  
As if sensing my mood, Mai spoke.  
  
"I heard something really violent when I passed by your house, and when I saw the address, I had to run in. I shot your father twice." She said.  
  
"I...that wasn't..." I said.  
  
"I know how you feel about him." Mai said. "Lift up your arms." She ordered. I did, and then Mai grabbed my shirttails and pulled up, taking my shirt off. She treated my back, probably the worst area of my body, but I couldn't help but be a little nervous. I never really thought about dating and intimate things, you never really did when you had such a shitty home life, and yet here I was, getting treated by the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, and she was even undressing me.  
  
"Don't read into this." She said, rubbing my arms with peroxide.  
  
"It's...hard not to." I said with a laugh.  
  
"Well, you're acting like an idiot, so I'd say you're back to normal." She said. I looked at the trashcan, and there were a lot of blood soaked cotton wads. I didn't know I had so much in my body.  
  
"Feeling any better." She asked.  
  
"You know the answer." I said, laughing again.  
  
"Can you move?" She asked. I nodded and flipped around, then she started treating my chest.  
  
"God, what was he doing, an autopsy?"  
  
"He was drunk, who knows." I replied absently.  
  
"Take off your jeans." She ordered. Even though the pain on the back of my calves hurt like nobody's business, I was still initially nervous.  
  
"I told you not to read into this. Don't worry, I'm not going to violate you or anything like that." Mai said as I finished. She treated my calves, and it felt really good, I lost any anxiety I had when she started treating me.  
  
"Your boxers are free of blood, so I don't think you have any cuts under there." She noted. I was glad. Letting Mai see me naked was something I was not ready for, not by a long shot, even if she was just treating my wounds.  
  
"Okay, now get some rest, don't worry about all the blood." She said. "You'll feel better in the morning."  
  
It was difficult to fall asleep. Getting comfortable was the easy part, but whenever I shut my eyes, I felt the bang of the knife in my back, and my gaze turned red, imagining the blood. Eventually, fatigue caught up with me and I drifted off. When I awoke, it felt like I barely slept at all, but it felt infinitely better. But I needed some grub and a shower, then I could sleep for a week.  
  
It was difficult to walk, but I was eventually able to do it with little problem. I was still wearing only my boxers, having no desire to put those blood stained clothes back on. Mai was cooking something in the kitchen in a skillet, and she smiled when she saw me. She laid down a plate of scrambled eggs before me, and I ate with such a haste she looked worried I would choke. In truth, they were pretty nasty; they had the aftertaste of hot sauce, but I scarfed down three plates of them.  
"Go get cleaned up." She said. I nodded, and she showed me the bathroom. I stripped off my boxers and looked in the mirror. I wasn't bleeding anymore, but I still bore all of the scars. I took a cold shower, the water soothing the pain if even for a minute, and then toweled myself off. I put my boxers back on and went back to the bedroom, and fell asleep almost immediately.  
  
When I woke up, it was the afternoon. Mai was in the living room, filing her nails.  
"I went to your house. There's a crime scene there, so I couldn't get in. I was going to call your mother, but I figured you should." I agreed, and went to the phone.  
Serenity picked up. "Wheeler house." She said.  
"Serenity, it's me."  
"Joey! Oh my god, are you alright?" She said. "Hold on, I'll get Mom." From the sound, Serenity dropped the phone and scampered away. A minute later, Mom picked up the phone.  
"Where are you, when I heard that your father was..."  
"I'm at a friend's house."  
"Yugi's?"  
"No, Mai. Serenity knows her."  
"I'll come get you. Put Miss Mai on the phone." I handed the phone to Mai, who gave Mom directions.  
"Better grab your clothes." Mai said as she hung the phone up with a wink. "Wouldn't want her to think anything happened.  
  
Mom showed up fifteen minutes later with Serenity. I was happy to see her, even though we didn't get along. Serenity hugged me, and nearly opened up one of my back scars, while my Mom weeped with joy from a distance. That was the way she was. Mai explained what had happened, that she shot Dad. I don't think she killed him, and that made me both upset and relieved at the same time, although if I was relieved it sickened me.  
"Well, I can't say you're diplomatic." Mom said. "But diplomacy was hardly the order of the day. Thank you. Joey, let's go, where are your clothes?" I held up the bloody rags that didn't do much to cover me up anyway. Mai handed me an extra blanket that I wrapped around myself.  
  
"You're shaking." Serenity said as we drove away. Mai had insisted on coming so she could file some police reports with Mom once I was safe.  
"I know." I said. I looked down at the floor, and then at Mai. She looked confidently ahead, at the setting sun. It must have been later then I thought. I got out of the car at Mom's and then stood with Mai as she watched the sunset for a minute. And it may have just been a trick with the light, but I could swear that a tear had trickled down her cheek. 


	3. I would have followed her anywhere

She pushed me into the bathroom, the women's bathroom. Those bastards outside were still searching for us, but we still had a job to do. Or at least she, the beautiful Mai Valentine, did. I'm not exactly sure what possessed her to come and find me, or even if it was me she was after, but, with a feat of daring-do, she rode her motorcycle through a giant plate glass skylight, incapacitating a few guards with the falling glass, and using that distraction to unhook me from the chair they were keeping me on and proceed to drag me through the corridors and dank hallways until we reached the bathroom.  
  
We moved away from the door, and Mai looked at me, a pleased expression on her face, but I was sure that it was because she had pulled this off with no hitches. I don't know how stupid I must've been, or how those people managed to sneak up on me and knock me out with chloroform. But I remember, hearing something that those crazy people talked about when they thought I was unconscious. Something about Yugi and him not being able to stop them as long as I was a prisoner.  
  
"Did Yugi send you?" I asked her, dusting glass shards off of my coat, or rather, Tristan's coat. We were supposed to dress nice for this tournament, but my father wasn't really my size, nor did he own anything nice, so I had to borrow his.  
  
"No, he told me what happened." She replied. "It was right up my alley." She said with a dorky smile that I would have expected to be plastered on my face. I placed my ear against the door and didn't here anyone outside, but Mai pulled me away.  
  
"We're not going to move yet." She said, taking off her leather jacket, the one that she wore when she rode her motorcycle. I didn't notice it before, but she had a wound on her right shoulder, and it looked like crap.  
  
"Damn." She noticed, taking a paper towel and applying it to the wound to stop it from bleeding.  
  
"You...bleed too." I said absently.  
  
"I'm not invincible, when did I ever say I was." She said, looking at me through the mirror.  
  
"Coulda...fooled me." I said.  
  
"Joey, I'm human, like you and like everyone else in this world. We all bleed, some of us are just better at hiding our wounds." She said. A true statement, and one that applied to her well. In all the time I'd known her, I'd never known Mai to willingly so anyone her wounds. I'd seen her wounded once, at Battle City, and that wasn't her fault at all.  
  
"What about you, are you hurt at all?" She asked. I shook my head.  
  
"Maybe a few bruises from when they decided to play punching bag, but nothing bleeding." I said. Mai seemed to enjoy hearing that, whether that I wasn't hurt or whether that I was a punching bag I couldn't tell. The wound had stopped bleeding, but Mai kept looking in the mirror.  
  
"Ummm...Mai, you're pretty enough, you're not looking for wrinkles now, are ya?" I joked. She had seemed a bit gloomy, and I wanted to make her feel better.  
  
"Shut up, Joey." Mai said. Why was she looking in the mirror? I wondered, but at that very moment, looking in the mirror, I thought I saw her cry. Why was she so upset?  
  
"Let's go." Mai said. She must have noticed me looking in the mirror, and decided that it was time to go.  
  
She lead the way through the dimly lit corridors. I was at first worried. These people were able to sneak up on the great Joey Wheeler and knock him out, they weren't second-rate. But Mai, with the elusiveness and sneak of a professional burglar, dodged and twisted, and we kept on moving.  
  
When we reached the outside, the sight made my heart nearly stop. There was a car not too far away from us, and I could see the keys in the ignition. But there were guards and searchlights everywhere. I was really afraid, not for me, but for Mai. If they found out about her, I shuddered to think of what would happen.  
  
Mai dodged between boxes, and then motioned for me to follow her. I was scared to death, what if that searchlight came back and found me, or someone saw our footprints.  
  
But then I realized, at that very moment, that I would have followed Mai anywhere.  
  
Trying to act like her, I moved as silently as I could, difficult in Tristan's fancy shoes that were two sizes too big. However, I made it to her.  
  
"Don't hesitate." She said, grabbing my hand. We ran together towards the jeep, slipping in the snow only once. She turned the ignition in the jeep and started driving away.  
  
"We've got company." I said as I looked in the rear view mirror. Once I said this, I wondered why I wasn't stricken with panic. We were in a jeep that didn't have a top to it, and there were three of them.  
  
"Take the wheel." Mai ordered, as she stood up on the seat of the car. I hastily grabbed the wheel and pressed my foot to the pedal, going faster. Mai stood up, a gun in her hand, she was shooting at them, shooting the tires of the enemy jeeps to prevent them from going.  
"Mai, this may not be the best time to say this, but I really don't know how to drive." I muttered, now seized with panic.  
  
"Just focus on what's in front." She said, not looking at me. "I won't be long."  
  
"Well, it's what's in front that worries me, it's a dead end up front!"  
  
"What?" Mai shouted, shooting the last enemy. She hastily grabbed the wheel, but there was not enough time to prevent us from sailing off the cliff.  
  
When I awoke, I was lying in a room. Yugi's face was towering over me.  
  
"You're alright, thank God." Tea's voice sounded from off to the side.  
  
"Yeah, I feel...Mai! Where is Mai!" I shouted, sitting up quickly. I was strapped to hospital equipment that I hastily tried to pull off.  
  
"Mai...wasn't here." Yugi said. She took you to my house, bandaged you up, and left."  
  
"She what?"  
  
"She said something about not wanting to see you hurt, she says that always happens when you two are around each other. So she handed you to me, and then left." Yugi held out a sealed letter that was addressed to him.  
  
Joseph,  
When you read this, I'll be gone. I enjoyed helping you, but I can't afford to see you hurt anymore. Don't look for me; it will be better for the both of us.  
Always,  
Mai  
  
I read the letter and started weeping. Tea and Yugi left the room and now Tristan was there. I wanted to see him, my best friend for years. I showed him the letter.  
  
"When she rescued me, she was...crying." I admitted to him.  
  
"Was she?" Tristan asked.  
  
"Yeah. I...I don't want to see her cry. I want to take all her tears away!" I shouted, upset at the piece of paper in my hands that still smelled vaguely of her.  
  
"Don't worry, you will...one day." Tristan said. He left the room soon after, taking back his jacket and shoes and throwing some of my things on the desk.  
  
I wasn't ready to be checked out of the hospital the next day, but I was sick of sitting around. The letter that Mai had written was actually on stationary that bore the name of a famous hotel in America, and I was going to go there. I told Yugi and Tristan about it, and Tristan encouraged me to go for it. Yugi was a bit reluctant, worrying more for my and her safety, but I knew he wanted me to find her just as much. I smiled, and got on the plane, Tristan comforting my weeping mother, Yugi looking to comfort Serenity, but she would have none of it as she looked proudly at me.  
  
The interior of my heart is blue like the sky  
And I don't know where this path will lead me.  
But as I place the power of my heart in my mind  
I am sure that nothing will stop me.  
  
I don't know where you are, or what you're doing.  
But I promise you that I will find you.  
Someday, somehow, somewhere, I'm sure.  
My...Mai 


	4. I can't see you like this

            She lay on the hospital bed, as she had been for quite some time now. I had kept a silent vigil, watching her, ever since she fell unconscious. I had not moved from my chair, not when Serenity brought me some coffee, which was cooling on the table beside, untouched. Not when Tristan came in with pizza, which he had taken away so it could be finished before it went bad. Not even when Yugi came in to try and get me to fall asleep. I'd been awake and motionless for six hours now, sitting on a chair just across the room from her bedside. I would have picked it up and moved closer, but it was bolted to the floor. 

            Tristan came in now, and he sat with me. I was ignoring him, but it wasn't his fault. He knew that, but I still think he was trying to snap me out of my hypnotic trance. 

            "What will…you do?" He said.

            "This is all I can do." I replied, focused on the beautiful woman in the hospital 

bed, the IV steadily pumping nourishment into her system.  Indeed, what could I do? She was still alive, her pulse constant, no apparent danger was visible, but that was before you looked into her eyes. Somehow, her eyes had stayed open after the ordeal, and looking into them made me depressed and angry both. They used to be such vibrant, beautiful things, sparkling when she chuckled, but now they were glassy and sightless, stagnant pools of violet water that stared ahead into oblivion. 

            "I…I…I want to help her, but I don't know how. I'm not even sure if she can hear me, but I'm gonna stay here anyway. I don't want her to be alone!" I claimed. Tristan, acknowledging my desires, left the room soon after, knowing full well that being by her meant me and no one else. 

            It was after Tristan left that I finally went outside, got a single folding chair, and brought it back so I could sit closer to her. Perhaps I was afraid to sit so close to her before, worried that disturbing her would cause me to lose her forever. I moved the hair off of her face; she would have never had it like that if she could do something about it.

            "Mai, why were…you doing this?" I asked her, knowing full well that she couldn't answer. I didn't care; the question deserved to be answered. Why did she go off and fight by herself? Didn't she know that I would always be there for her, no matter what? After Battle City and the trip to America, I promised that I would never let her go again, never would I let her fight her demons alone. But I failed her.

            "DAMN!" I cursed, punching the wall. The resounding pain in my hand almost felt good. I looked at her again, now not able to tear myself away from those sightless, soul-stealing eyes. She looked right at me, but that was because I was standing in front of her. Moving closer, I inched closer to her face. She made no movements, no motions, she wasn't aware of my existence. 

            "I…don't know what to do. I'm not strong at all, not like you." I told her, hoping that somehow she heard me. She had said something similar to this when we went to America.

            _"You're not weak." I said, trying to stand up straight despite the back injury I sustained. She looked at me as if she wanted to believe it, and she probably did, but there was still a hint of depression in her eyes._

_            "Mai, you've become so strong. You're strong enough to do anything alone." I said, trying to comfort her._

_            "I don't care about being strong. What could is strength if no one can share it with you, if no one can benefit from it._

_            "I take from your strength." I said. This was no pretty phrase; I really did take my strength from her demeanor. She may have been a little nasty, but she had her reasons, just like everyone had reasons for everything. _

_            "How can anyone take from my strength? None of them trust me to make my own choices." She was still acting tough, but she was fighting a losing battle with her own feelings, I could sense it. _

_            "We…I can't speak for them, but I can speak for me." I placed my hands on her shoulders.  "We all need to be strong, but I can't be. I'm not strong at all; I'm weak and fickle. So I take my strength from all of you. So please…I may not have much, but take some strength from me." I said. Mai was teary eyed and upset. We were alone together, and I wanted to kiss her so badly, but I kept my distance. I wouldn't do it unless she wanted it. _

"I trust you, Mai." I was shouting at her unresponsive body. "I always have, so you can't…you can't do this. You can't just stay weak like this. You can hear me, can't you? Please, wake up, Mai. Wake up!" I shouted. Tears were brimming down my cheeks, and I didn't give two shits. They fell on her cheeks, dampening them, creating small glimmers when the overhead lights reflected in them. 

            "Mai, this weakness, this fear. It's…it's not like you. Where is this strength, your heart and courage. Please, don't lie there and stay defeated. If anything, please, please…slap me again!" I pleaded. I wouldn't care if she twisted my arms into an anatomically impossible position if it meant that she was up and doing it. I was still crying, bathing her face in salt water that would not stop from my eyes. 

            She stirred. Did it work? Please, God, whatever God is looking out for her, tell me it worked. Tell me that I'm on the right track. Tell me something, dammit, don't leave her now like everyone else. Her eyes blinked, and I nearly collapsed with joy. She was still laying still, but her eyes darted and moved around. 

            "Mai? Mai! Mai, I'm right here, come on, get up." I called, taking her hand, and wiping away my tears on her cheeks with the others. She moaned again, and moved her neck. She looked right at me, and the subtle smile that I loved so much start to form from her mouth.

            "Joey." She said softly. I nearly fainted. She looked like she was back to normal. I wiped away the tears in my eyes as I held her hand, wanting time to stop right then and there. 

            "Yes, Mai?" I asked. I would have done anything for her.

            "You're…crying." She said. I was still crying, I knew. I still didn't care.

            "I…can't help it." I choked on my speech. "It just happens when these things happen."

            "I…know, but you're not supposed to be crying." Mai said. I didn't answer, just held this position of me holding her hand.

            "Quit…clamming up." Her voice was steadily gaining strength, and it sounded like she was returning to her old self. "You…always do that. Talk, don't listen." She said. 

            "Can…can you get up?" I asked. I didn't want to force her, but I wanted to see her back to herself. I couldn't stand seeing her lying like that, weak and helpless. And alone. 

            "Of course, first I gotta get this shit off of me." She tore out the IV and I pushed all the tables and stuff away. She was shoeless, which wasn't a surprise, I took off her shoes to make her more comfortable, and she steadily got her balance in stockinged feet. 

            She walked over easily, as if nothing had ever happened, but she claimed she felt air-headed so she sat down for a minute. She still felt a little dizzy when I offered to help her up, and as I helped her, she swept me off my feet into a hug.

            "Mai…I'm…glad your all right." I said.

            "That's all you can say?" She asked as a joke.

            "No. I want to say that…" I started, but then I felt a sharp sting in my groin. 

            "Don't touch me like that!" Mai shouted. Yugi and the gang had apparently come into the room, and to save face, she kneed me. I gave out a yelp and fell to the floor, clutching my groin in pain. But I still smiled as I got up, and turned to the group as if it never happened. 

            I did, after all, ask her to slap me. Not exactly what she did, but Mai was never did exactly what you wanted. That was her charm. 


	5. I don't want you to bear it alone

            **To answer the question, yes, none of these stories are related. It's just a series of Joey x Mai fics. No real order to them. Maybe when I get enough ideas for a full story, I can tie some of these together, but not now. **

                        _Joey_

            She was posed up there in a scene almost like the Crucifixion. I wasn't much of a praying person, so there wasn't any beauty or anything like that in this scene, just a crazy bastard trying to rile all of us, and he was doing an fucking good job if I could say so myself.

            "Mai!" I called out to her. She was attached to a stone slab by an iron band at her waist and another a little below her neck. She had been trying to free herself, but with no success, up until a few minutes ago. I was shouting to her, but she wasn't listening. Couldn't she see or hear me? I had been shouting for her to pull herself together and get out of this mess, but she looked vacantly ahead of me, her gaze fixed on whatever was directly in front of her in that little world that is her mind. Was she looking at the villain, almost fearful to move because of the throwing knives that the man was carrying in his hands, or was something more sinister at work, was her mind sealed away like in Battle City before this. 

            I started to run up to her, only to find Tristan had grabbed me roughly by the collar.

            "There's nothing you can do." He said. "I know you want to save her but you won't be able to if that sick asshole kills you before you can reach her."

            "And what am I supposed to do?" I asked as the madman threw a knife at her, traveling at blinding speed until it lodged itself in her hair. That asshole was toying with us, practically provoking me to go up there, take the knife, and throw it back. I wanted to do that more then he could possibly comprehend.

            "What you can do is not act stupid." Tristan returned. "I don't want to see her get hurt any more then the rest of us, but if both of you die because you risk your life to save her, then what's the point of that risk. This guy is clearly fucked up enough to kill the both of you then go drink a beer and play cards like nothing ever happened."

            "And standing around here, while we watch the sadistic asshole throw knives at her, trusting that the next one won't hit is supposed to be the best alternative?" I demanded hypothetically, angrily grabbing Tristan's neck and forcing the taller man to my eye level. 

            "Who said it was preferable. I'm trying to keep us all safe."

            "Well, Mai can't afford that and neither can I." I said.

            "Mai doesn't want you to get hurt!" He shouted, desperate not to put me, the best friend he ever had since, well, ever, in danger. I liked how he was looking out for me like a big brother should, but I couldn't just leave Mai there, I'd never forgive myself, even if she did. 

            "Fuck what Mai wants! I gotta be selfish to help her and do what I want!" I shouted. I didn't think I was making much sense, but Tristan let go of my collar.

            "Be…careful. If you make Serenity cry, I'll never forgive you." He said, his tone now completely serious. I had no intention of hurting Serenity, and she would understand, I think. She would know that even if I died here, it would be worth it if Mai were safe. 

            I threw myself in between Mai and the sadistic maniac; my body was the shield between the two. He looked at me and sneered. 

            "So, it seems that you can't keep your rational mind to yourself when she is in trouble. Very well, I was expecting this." He said, and he let one of the knives fly right at me. I saw it coming from a mile away, but if I dodged it, the thing would hit Mai. So instead, I just told the man to fuck himself as the knife whittled into my chest. The pain was amazing, but I was barely feeling it. Knowing that it was in me and not Mai was all I needed to know.

            "So, that is the way you will act." He said. "I didn't expect you to come up with no shield but your own body, but this is amusing. I've never met anyone so stupid and reckless in all my years and it makes me excited."

            "That's gross." I said, and was greeted with another knife to my chest. They didn't appear to go as deep as I thought they would, but I thought they'd nearly rip right through me. 

            A third knife, this one closer to my neck. I was getting really dizzy, my vision was failing, and I could barely breathe due to the pain. But I didn't move.

            "Had enough yet?" He asked. I shook my head, and he threw a fourth knife, the blade lodging in my chest again, right near my heart.

            "Jo…Jo…Joey!" Mai's voice was like a beacon that shattered the depths of the pain. "What…the…hell are…you…doing?" She demanded, trying to act like herself. I couldn't answer, I was barely able to acknowledge her by moving my neck, let alone speak. 

            "Joey, stop!" I heard someone say, Tristan or Tea probably. I felt a fifth knife enter me, and I nearly collapsed. I felt blood streaming down my chest and onto the ground, and I could see nothing before me but a haze. Was my life flashing before my eyes? If I was, I must not have been seeing it, or hearing anything else but a loud ringing in my ears. I felt someone come grab me by the collar, and something, probably another the bastard's knives, against my neck. I couldn't tell what he was doing, nor could I do anything about it if he was hurting Mai. 

I cursed my weakness. "Mai, are you in trouble? If you are, please shout, I want to save you." My thoughts were about the only thing that I had now, so I ordered Mai to say something through telepathy. I cursed myself again. She was in trouble, my mind rationalized, and I can't protect her. I'm too weak to stand up and save her. I knew that I had knives sticking out of me, but that shouldn't have been able to stop me from saving her. 

"Damn it, Wheeler." I told myself. "You're a dumb shit." My mind said. And that was the last thought that entered my mind.

Mai 

I was in a funk, I knew it. I had been trying to snap myself out of it, but that asshole with the knives must've pulled some of that black magic shit that those Ancient Egypt psychos did. But all I could see was Joey, Joey's stupid grin as he provoked the man with the knives, Joey's white T-shirt turning incarnadine with all of the blood and flesh, Joey not uttering a single scream or noise of discomfort to give the man satisfaction. Although I couldn't see the impact, it stuck out in my memory as if I had done so. It snapped me into reality, breaking the sick bastards spell. I was trying to free myself, but those iron bands held me tight. When Joey dropped to one knee, that was when the others reacted. Tristan came up to me with a power tool that I didn't recognize and started to cut the band around my neck while pulling a knife from the slab that held my hair in place. I was about to tell him to forget about me and go save Joey, when I saw Tea and Yugi already at his side. Where did the bastard go? How could I have lost track of him? 

Tristan cut me free, and I dropped to the ground. I ignored his attempts to help me up and scampered like a puppy towards Joey. The hero had fallen down, but he at least made some effort to twist his body before he passed out, for he was lying on his back, the hilts of five throwing knives sticking up at me like Uncle Fester's bed of nails. I grabbed them and wrenched them out with all my strength, placing the damn things still close to us in case the bastard showed up again. Joey's chest was caked in blood, oozing from five different wounds. I tried pressing Joey's shirt on them, but it was too sticky and soaked with blood to be of any help. Tristan took off his jacket and we used it, desperately trying to stop him from bleeding. I was weeping, and crying, and I didn't fucking care who saw me. This was not the time to be holding onto my pride, as much as I would have liked too. 

Our efforts appeared to work, and Joey stopped bleeding heavily. Tristan put Joey on his back while I grabbed the knives. I carried one in each hand, and if I saw the bastard who owned these again, I'd have to remedy the problem of him being allowed to breathe. We dragged Joey into the room, and laid him down. There wasn't any real medical equipment to use, but Joey's wounds had stopped majorly bleeding, although I would have wanted to give him a blood transfusion, because he probably needed. 

Joey woke up when I was alone in the room. He sat up as if nothing had ever happened, and even I was impressed at his stamina. 

"Your hair." He said, indicating the spot where the asshole's knife that cut my hair. I'm sure it looked like shit, but I didn't care about my appearance at a time like this. 

_Joey_

            "You should fix your hair." I said. I was so happy that she didn't appear to have any injuries I couldn't pay attention to my own. They hurt, hurt like a bitch, and the pain would stay with me for a while. Mai, with tears in her eyes, slapped me upside the head.

            "Who gave you fucking permission to go do something that stupid?" She said, trying to save face. 

            "Me, and that's enough." I said, trying to brush the caked on blood off of my chest. 

            She grabbed my hand, grabbed it in a vice-like grip that I would have never been able to break.

            "You told me…that I should never have to bear any of my pain alone." She said, looking at me straight in the eye. At this moment, I remembered, even though I knew it all along, that Mai Valentine was the most beautiful woman I'd ever met. 

            "Yeah, I said that." I said, grinning like a sheepish idiot. "You shouldn't. You should never feel alone when you're in pain."

            "The same goes for you." She told me softly. And then, she pressed me close in a hug that had the same intensity of the grip she used on my hand. She was one hard lover, that was for sure.  

            I was no good at these types of things, and now didn't feel like the moment for something romantic. She had been crying heavily recently, been a target practice dummy for an asshole with a complex and knives, and had her mind fucked around with by that magic shit. I was scarred up, shirtless, and still had a huge-ass headache from all of the blood I lost. Yet she pulled me in close, close enough so that I could fear her heart beating. Hers was beating as fast as mine, and then she grabbed my face and kissed me. It was sudden, intense, our first real kiss. She took me by surprise with it; it wouldn't have mattered if I had that guys knives and enough black magic to blast the world, I wouldn't have been able to stop the moment from happening.  

                                                                                                                        _I didn't want to._


	6. Engel

            "I'll do it." She said, looking towards the rest of the group like she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

            "Mai?" Tristan said, not expecting her to come forward.

            "I've been thinking, and yes, I'm more then just a beautiful person, I have a mind too. Anyway, I was thinking, I don't get this Egypt shit at all. All I know how to do is fight. But I know that we can't let that asshole get what he wants. We can't right? So I'll leave the magic shit to you guys, and I'll do what I can. I'll draw their fire."

            "No!" I shouted. It was way too dangerous, Mai could get killed. We looked at each other for an extended minute.

            "Joseph, you know as well as I do that there is no one else." She said before walking off. 

            "No, Mai, there's got to be…" I started, but she wasn't listening. She was walking off, her leather boots clacking against the asphalt road.

            "Follow her." Tristan said softly to me. I nodded, and chased after her.

            That Ancient Egypt bastard had turned people all around into zombies, yet somehow, we were alive. Yugi had a marvelous plan to fix it, but he had to draw upon however that magic worked. We had to cover him, and Mai was going to fight. I didn't want her too. She stood on a hill, facing Domino City, which had fallen into ruins. 

            "Mai." I came up to her.

            "What are you doing here? I can handle this." She said.

            "I…I don't want you to do this." I said. "It's too dangerous." 

            "Joey, you've got way too much to live for. You've got all your friends, your sister who cares for you like no one else, and there are so many people who would be sad if anything happened to you." She said, turning towards the city and drawing two large pistols. 

            "Me, I've never had anything. I never had friends, I never had a real family, and only a few people would notice I was gone. I've got nothing, so I've got nothing to lose."

            "Mai, I…I don't want to lose you." I said, nearly crying.

            "Quit crying, you're not weak."

            "I am weak, Mai. I'm only strong when I'm with you." I shouted, desperate to get her to understand. I didn't want to live without her. I loved her so much, more then anyone else. 

            "Remember, Joey, that it may not be as dangerous as we think." She said. "I could do this and nothing could happen at all."

            "I know, and I don't care. I don't want to risk you for anything." I came up close to her; I wanted to bring her back. 

            "Don't…don't do this, Joey." She said, looking away from me. "Don't make this harder then it already is. You're all I have, and I don't want…I don't want to lose you either. But you're all I have; I've got nothing else. So if I lose, all I lose is you. But all of you would lose so much more. That's why I will take their fire." She said again, still not looking at me. 

            I couldn't convince her, because I knew she was right. That made it even harder on me, I felt like my heart was being pressed under stone blocks. 

            "Please…please don't die." I said, between sobs. 

            "Ich werde ein Engel bevor ich sterbe." She said. I had no clue what it meant, but it sounded like it was German. 

            I heard a sound behind me, which meant Yugi must have been getting started. Mai kept her gaze focused towards the city, and although I knew she wanted me to go back to Yugi, I couldn't leave her. The demons in the city must've seen what was happening, and started to fly towards the light. 

            That's when Mai started shooting, bullets blazing out of her guns and ripping in to the demon's flesh, dropping them like clay pigeons. I couldn't do anything else but watch her fight, and I was so awestruck by the sight. Wearing her leather jacket and a leather skirt, she reminded me of a dark angel, one who was sent down from Heaven to perform some duties and was scarred by the experience. The corpses of demons starting increasing, but more and more were coming. I was shouting as loud as I could, pointing out ones that were coming close to her. I wanted them all dead right now, even if they were humans before. I wanted none of them to touch her. 

            But one demon, despite how much Mai shot it, kept on coming. It's face had been shot to shreds by her pistols, but it still flew on towards her on leathery bat wings. It slashed her, right at the shoulder, it's long claws digging through her skin like it was tissue paper. 

            I screamed out her name, and yet she ignored it, and continued to shoot. The demon did fall down, and it looked like we had a brief moment of reprieve, no more seemed to be coming. I cradled her body in my arms. The wound didn't appear to be severe, but she looked so pale, did that fucking demon poison her? 

             "Mai" I shouted. "Are you okay?" She looked right at me, and smiled. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I heard more demons from the city. Yugi wasn't finished and Mai appeared to be incapacitated. 

            "I know. You don't want me blubbering now. We've still got a mission to do, right? Don't worry, Mai, I'll protect you." She looked ahead at me without acknowledging; she probably couldn't understand me now, as I picked up her guns. More demons were coming from the city.

             "Ich werde ein Engel bevor ich sterbe." I shouted, what Mai said to me before this whole thing started. I started firing off, shooting as many as I could. I was no expert like she was, but the things were so goddamn big that it was like shooting the broad side of a barn. 

            "Anyone else want some? Come on, I'll fight till my heart stops!" I shouted, demons corpses dropping out of the air like flies. 

            The last demon I saw was the mother of all demons. The bitch was monstrous, so I could start at her from far away, but like the demon that clawed Mai, it just wouldn't go down. It came up closer to me, it's face obliterated and covered in bullet holes, but still walked like nothing ever happened. It reached out its claws and got me right in the chest. I felt my skin rip and tear, my chest muscles splintering like wood. It lifted me up into the sky, and I still fired. I fired until there were no more bullets, and then I started kicking the damn bitch's face. It gave out a loud howl, and then it collapsed to the ground. It retracted it's claw at the last second, my chest exploding in blood. It fell to the ground motionless, while I, with some difficulty, slithered over to Mai. It didn't look like any more demons were coming, so I placed on of the guns back in her hand. She had not moved since I saw her last, and I was sure that we were both dying, and nothing could help us. 

            "Joey," I thought I heard her say. Was she alive? I didn't know. Then I fell to the ground, my arms losing all their strength to hold me up. 

            "Ich werde ein Engel bevor ich sterbe." I said with difficulty. Now I knew what it meant. 

"I'll become an angel before I die." 

She was already an angel, had already been one. She was my angel. I had always hoped that I would be an angel for her, and now, finally, I think I got my wish.

Tristan 

Whatever Yugi did had finally worked, so I went to find Joey and Mai. I'd seen no demons come close to Yugi, so they must have done their job. I was relieved; maybe it wasn't as dangerous as we thought. We could all go back to the city and drink many toasts to our victory. Nothing prepared me for the sight I saw.

            Joey and Mai were there alright, among the corpses of demons, I couldn't count how many, because I didn't care about them, Joey and Mai were on the ground, and they both were bleeding.

            "Joey, Mai!" I shouted. Mai was pale and unresponsive; Joey was not conscious and bleeding out of his chest. The wound appeared to run deep, cutting all of his muscles, but not deep enough to have hit his organs, due to the lack of tissue on his wounds. Mai appeared to have been poisoned somehow, so I started CPR. Was she going to pull through? Yugi came up behind me; Tea must have stayed with Serenity to prevent her from seeing this sight. 

            "Do something!" I ordered him, then turning back to Mai. He appeared to consult with the spirit inside the puzzle for a minute, and then he put his hands on my shoulders.

            "I'm not sure if this will work, but I can try something." The deeper voice of the spirit said. "Go to Serenity, she needs you the most now." His voice relaxed me, even though I was hysteric. I stood up, and picked up Yugi, bring the short kid to my eye level.

            "This better work." I said, before walking off. I walked back to Serenity, and held up close to me as she wept, her tears absolutely soaking my shirt. She cried until she fell asleep, and when she did I was able to change shirts and rest with her. And when I slept, I thought I saw an image of Joey and Mai together, embracing each other. And I saw a bright light erupting from both of their backs. 

            Could it have been…wings? 


	7. Wanting the rest

            **Thank you all for reading my stories and especially those of you who take the time to review. I'm glad you all enjoy my pieces from the light, cheerful ones to the darker "love blooms on the battlefield" pieces. Lina, to answer your statement, you are correct. It would be dangerous depending on the angle of the wound, depth of the wound, wound location, et cetera. However, neither Mai nor Joey in these stories represents the most logical people. **

I sat down on the couch and popped myself a soda, chugging it in all one breath. Serenity wrinkled her nose with disgust as I slammed the can down. I wasn't trying to upset her or anything, I was just really happy that I could barely contain myself. My father had been arrested, and I never had to deal with him or his abuse, and best of all, Serenity wouldn't have to deal with it either. Sure, it had been a whole month since I'd gone to live with my mother and Serenity, but I still sad a sense of euphoric elation whenever I went home. 

            It was, without a doubt, the second greatest thing that ever happened. Yeah, my meeting Yugi ranked up there too, I had been able to change and make my life better for everyone. That was third, or maybe fourth. It was hard to rank them: No longer living with my father, my meeting Yugi, saving Serenity's sight, they were all pretty high up on the list.

            _Mai._

            Mai. She was really important to me too. I would have never thought that my meeting her would have been so important, at least initially. As our feelings and relationship bloomed, we had become so close, if not publicly. I think I was the only person she told about her fear, her fear of being alone, and she'd been there for me time and time again, when I was about to lose any chance of saving Serenity, when I was brainwashed by Marik, and more. 

            But now, I couldn't find her. She had disappeared recently; she had only mentioned to Tristan that she didn't want to be the cause of any problems between my mother and me. Yeah, my mother wasn't too hot about Mai and me. I asked her what her fucking problem was, and she said something about Mai being a slut and other shit that I didn't care about. Mai wasn't a slut, she just had the goods, and she showed it off. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, Mai was even tasteful about what she showed and what she didn't. God, Mom approved of Tristan and Serenity being together, and those two, though I like 'em more them anything, were a hell of a lot more pernicious then me and Mai. 

            "Hey, Joey, can I ask you something?" Serenity said. The two of us were spending the night at Tristan's, and the two of them sat on the couch, both of them with looks of worry on their faces. 

            "Hey, no need to be all formal, just ask." I said with a laugh. Ever since Mai left, I tried to curb my frowns by laughing. I laughed so much that I don't think my laughing meant anything to me anymore.

            "You've…been talking your sleep." Serenity said.         

            "Yeah, ever since Mai left. Are you alright?" Tristan asked. They were my rocks in this time. I had initially tried to be alone in my sorrow, but they wouldn't have any of it. Mai had tried to fight alone, and she had been hurt. They weren't going to let me suffer through that.

            "I…I don't think I have control over that." I said. 

            "You want to see her again." Serenity said not as a question.

            "More then anything."

            "We don't know about Mai. When she comes is when she comes." Tristan said. I would have never admitted that that statement was true, but it was. It was Mai's choice if she wanted to see me again, I couldn't go out and find her, I had no clue where to look. 

            "Please, Joey, try to smile. I mean really smile. She'll come back, and when she does I don't think she wants to see you frowning." Serenity said. 

            "Yeah." I said. "Thanks. Let's go to sleep." 

            God, Tristan's parents must've liked the desert or something, they always kept the house stuffy and hot. It was really hard to fall asleep, even after taking off my shirt. Eventually, my tossing and turning had found me a cool spot, and I was able to slip into sleep. I didn't dream a lot, even after Mai had left. I don't understand where those two got the thing that I was talking in my sleep. 

            I saw her, in the distance. That beautiful woman loomed ahead of me in the distance. I called out to her, desperate to get her to look my way. But she wouldn't turn around. I was catching up to her though. She was wearing the last thing I remember her wearing, a white halter top and a dark purple mini-skirt. God, this was so real, I could see the buttons on her shirt, the light reflecting the leather. 

            "Mai, Mai!" I called. But then she vanished. 

            "Oh, am I dreaming?" I bitched. I hated dreams like this. I heard Mai chuckle behind me.

            "Oh, you damn dream." I cursed. "Quit tempting me."

            "I'll tempt you with my fist!" Mai's voice sounded behind me. I didn't care if it was a dream now, that was so Mai. I turned around, and there she was, beautiful as always. She looked a little different then last I remember. She had gotten her hair cut, and her lipstick was a different color.

            "You've been keeping busy?" She asked. 

            "I don't live with my dad anymore." I said.

            "Always a good thing. The bastard dead?"

            "No, arrested."

            "Good enough." Mai said. "God, is that what you wear when you sleep?" She joked. 

            "No, I usually wear a T-shirt and those flannel pants you got me. It's just really hot tonight, that shirt made me bake in my sweat with it on." I was trying to wax pleasantries with her. God, was I still dreaming. Please say I wasn't dreaming. 

            "You mean Tristan's beach-climate loving parents." She joked. I nodded. 

            "What have you been up to." I asked. When I asked this, Mai seemed to sadden a little.

            "I'm…I'm not at liberty to say. Don't worry about it." She said.

            "Please."

            "I can't." She responded. 

            "I…" Tears started welling in my eyes. "I've missed you so much, more then you can imagine. It's hard to live without you."

            "I've got to be cruel to be kind. I wouldn't be me otherwise." She tried to act tough, like always. I was still crying. 

            "Stop crying, you know I'll be back." She said reassuringly. "I didn't teach you to act all weepy and pathetic, you know."

            "Not around you. I can't help but be an idiot who can't think around you."

            "I know, but I'm still telling you to quit it. I don't know when I'll see you again." 

            "Mai, please, don't go!" I shouted. "I don't care what's going on, we could take on the world if we have too. Fuck them and what they want, I've never forgotten about you!" I was shouting. Then I hugged her. 

            "This is a dream, Joey." Mai said sadly, with her wrapped up in my arms.

            "I know. I don't think we could do this in the real world. You're a lot stronger then me." I said, pressing her to my chest. 

            "Yeah." She admitted. "I'd never let you be touching me like this. Not unless I made the first move. I'd never be acting like a naïve girl on prom night." She said, wrapping her hands around my back. 

            "I don't care if this is a dream. If we can't do things like this in the real world, then I want to stay here as long as I can." I said softly, pressing her head to my shoulder.

            "Joey." She said softly. After we kept the embrace for a long moment, she broke our hug, and then wiped my right eye.

            "I told you…to quit crying." She said.

            "Mai…" I said, moving in to kiss her. Her velvety lips inching close. I shut my eyes again, tentatively calling her name and moving in closer. 

            "Mai. Mai. Please…Mai." I said, suddenly jolting up. I was sitting up on Tristan's couch; a blanket wrapped around the lower half of my body. Serenity was right; I had been talking in my sleep.

            "Joey?" I heard Serenity's voice from the kitchen. 

            "Huh, Serenity?" I said. Serenity, wearing a loose nightgown, came in with a glass of water in her hand. Tristan, shirtless and wearing the dorky pajama pants Serenity picked out for him for his birthday as a joke, followed her.   

            "I was…" I started. 

            "I know, man. You want her so badly she's haunting your dreams. Try to get some sleep." He said, leading Serenity off into her room. His momma was pretty big on us staying in separate rooms, so I knew nothing was happening. I reached up to my face to wipe my eye, and found that although my left eye had been damp with tears, my right eye was completely dry. 

            "She…wiped away my tears." Was she really influencing me like that. I tried to go back to sleep, hopefully the dream would still be there. But I got nothing. Nothing else happening the entire night. When I woke up the next morning, the earliest, I was really depressed, that night had been perfect, and it was one night that would always live in my mind, yet I'd never experience it again.

            "Please…please." I said to my troubled subconscious. I had no clue what made dreams happen, something about your eyes moving, I heard Serenity say. But that was something that was triggered by more then my eyes.

"Please…give me…the rest of the dream." __


	8. What she is, and I don't care

            **Warning: Some science stuff and attempted suicide. **

I had always known that she was too beautiful to be normal. Come on; take on look at Mai Valentine. If you tell me she's plain, you either don't care about these things or you're blind. If you weren't one of those things, you deserved to have your brain taken out of your body and given to someone who could put it to better use.

            But there was one thing Mai had never told me before was her past, at least she never told me much. She told me she was adopted, hated her parents for how long they left her absent, and when she joined high-fly casino boats, she jumped at the opportunity, yet hated it immensely. I had prodded her day after day about who her real parents were, but she wasn't talking. She didn't say she didn't know, so I thought they meant she wasn't going to tell me. 

            "I don't want to talk about them." She had said. "That bitch…that bastard…I'd be better off forgetting." She resolved. I looked at her, and I immediately felt her pain. I didn't like my parents, not much, either. 

            "You shouldn't say that." I tried to be comforting.

            "I've got the right to!" She shouted. Man, I was getting nowhere; it was best to stop prodding for today. 

            However, before I left, Mai told me to wait. 

            "There is something…something I received today." She held up a sealed envelope. 

            "The name on it says it came from the man who calls himself my father. I'm…afraid. Please, Joey, open it." I wanted to show no fear, but I couldn't help but be a little nervous as I took one of Mai's fancy jeweled letter openers and cut open the top. Inside was a folded piece of paper. It smelled vaguely of the jasmine perfume that Mai wore, but it was otherwise appeared very formal, a very short typewritten message. I read it out to her, and as I read I watched her beautiful face pale as if color was water and it was leaking out of a hole in the bottom of a cup. 

_Ms. Mai Valentine, or whatever you call yourself_

_            I'm sure you know who has written this, and that saves me some ink to explain that. You have questions about your own past, and if you want them answered, come to the abandoned hospital on Fourth Street. Bring whatever friends you want. Use that fake name I've provided on the envelope if you want to identify who I am, or you can just call me Asshole, it makes no difference. _

"Mai…" I reached out my hand to touch her cheek, unsure of what to say to comfort her.

            "I'm…I'm going to go. Come with me." She said pleadingly. I would have done anything for her, and in truth, I was so curious that I would have came if she told me not to. 

            Mai drove down to Fourth Street. It wasn't the prettiest area of town, and we stood out among the crowd of derelicts, drunks, and prostitutes. Mai had wisely decided to dress, although not like a prim proper woman, not like trash. I think one drunk tried to ask us for money, but Mai just punched him out, sending the asshole flying into a brick wall. No one else came near us as we reached the hospital. The dark abandoned building appeared to have been vacated only recently, I could still see some pieces of equipment in the windows. Mai was nervous, so I took her hand and led the way inside. 

            There was still electric power in the building, so the writer of the note was expecting us. Mai still looked timid when we searched through the rooms to try and find this man, the pseudonym he gave was David Alexander, but I held her hand the entire way, trying to think of something to bring up her mood, but I couldn't think of anything appropriate to say. 

            "Joey, what do you think will happen?" She asked me.

            "I…don't know. I guess you'll find your dad and he'll want to make up to you what you been missin' out on. I'm kinda jealous, ya know." I responded, scratching the back of my head.   
            "That's only one possibility, and I don't think that's what's going to happen." 

            "What do…you think?" I asked her. 

            "He called himself Asshole in the letter, I think he doesn't want me to come." She responded 

            "Well, yeah, I was thinking of that." I shrugged. "But he wouldn't have set all this up if he wanted if he didn't want you to come." I said. Mai shrugged, and we kept walking. 

            We had searched pretty much the whole hospital and found nothing. When Mai started to think it was an elaborate hoax, she turned to me.

            "Well, I guess some asshole needs to get some better hobbies. Thanks though, for coming." She said with a smile. I was about to say something back when all the lights went out.

            "Mai!" I shouted. There was still daylight coming in, but the sudden abruptness of the lights turning off scared the shit out of me. 

            "Don't be so…" She started, but she was nervous too, her hand was shaking.

            "Welcome, Mai, and you too, little boy. Welcome to my parlor. It's taken you so long to find me, so I think I'll give you a hint." One of the doors near the back of the hospital opened up, and a red light was glowing from inside. Despite our fear, we walked like Dorothy and the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Entering the room, we almost felt a wind brush us by, as if disturbed souls were locked in that room, and now groped at whatever living things they saw.

            The first thing I noticed when my eyes got used to the light was the body. Mai found the light switch and flipped it back to normal, the power humming on as if it had never been shut off, while I went over to the body. It was female, and small, blonde hair blocking out her face. When I moved it to see if the child was still breathing, I nearly collapsed with horror.

            The body had Mai's face. 

            "This…this…" I started, nearly gagging. When Mai came over to see what happened, she dropped to her knees and looked like she was going to puke. 

            "Are you…" I started, but I knew the answer. The room was filled with these little dolls. A bunch of naked Mai's, ranging in age from infants to twelve-year-olds. Some of them were horribly scarred, or burned, one of them had dark purple skin like a demon.

            "And this, this, was my life's entire legacy!" A loud man's voice sounded from behind us. It was a man dressed all in black, and he reminded me of one of those televangelists. He spoke almost like a priest reading about the end of the world. 

            "Asshole." I said, not bothering to use the name he had given us.

            "Don't speak, observe!" He said, waving with his arms to mention the entire room. Mai was still on the ground, gagging. I stood up and put myself between them.

            "What the fuck is this, you sick bastard?" I demanded, my hands balled into fists. 

            "You can't figure it out."

            "What the fuck is there to figure out?" I asked angrily. 

            "This was the project: the design of a new type of vaccine. It would work by creating antigens in a child while the immune system was developing. In layman's terms, the baby pretty much received shots before it was even born. However, like experiments can do, it didn't go all that well. The children had their ages accelerated to monitor effects faster, and most of them died before they hit puberty."

            "So what does that mean?" I demanded. "You create a bunch of people that look like Mai, and it doesn't work. Nice work, asshole, but what does that have to do with her."

            "My, you're stupider then I thought. Mai is the rose! She is the flower that blooms from the corpses!" I looked over at Mai, and she averts her gaze, almost crying. "She was the one who aged normally, and all of the effects worked, an astounding success!" He shouted maniacally. 

            "You sick bastard. Now what? Why the hell did you bring us here?"

            "I brought her here because it's time to end this project. Unfortunately, the government and its laws on manipulation are clawing at my ass, and so, I must destroy all of my babies. But first, I'm going to have to take care of the one that can get away."

            "You ain't touching her!"  
            "I knew you'd act like that. I had her bring friends because I wanted you to watch her die. That bitch you're set on protecting destroyed my research and ran away. Now, she's back, and now, I'm going to eliminate my greatest failure. You, Mai Valentine." Mai still wasn't looking at me, so I angrily strode over and punched the guy.

            "Over my dead body will you kill her." Before he could react, I grabbed him roughly by the collar, and flailed at him with my fists until he was unconscious and his blood wept from my hands. 

            "Mai." I walked over, she had finally stood up, and there she was, standing with a scalpel pointed towards her heart. 

            "NO!" I shouted, diving towards her. Her look was one of pure sadness as she saw me as she started to move the thing towards her chest.

            I felt a wincing pain in my hand. I had moved quickly enough, and instead of the scalpel lodging in her chest, it was stuck in my hand. 

            "What…are you…" I started.

            "I never…I never had anything at all. I destroyed all of this asshole's work to prevent more of these things from being created. But I'm still alive, his abomination still walks. And I have to end it."

            "NO!" I protested, ripping the scalpel from my hand and throwing it out the window. I grabbed her and hugged her close, keeping my arms wrapped around hers, forcing hers to her side and away from anything else here.

            "Joey, I…I should have never been brought into this world in the first place. I'm as much a human as the spawn of a demon."

            "Who the fuck cares about that?" I shouted, still bringing her close to me. 

            "I do. I'm as abominable as the man that created me!" 

            "No!" I shouted, my mantra. "You're not evil or anything. You're…you're…you're just Mai, and that's it!" I shouted, tears forming in both of our eyes at the same time. She paused, almost as if she was considering what I said.

            "You are he are not the same, it's not your blood on my hands. So what if you were made, you're a human too."

            "No, I'm not."

            "Then…then I don't want to be human either!" I shouted, even though I knew that statement was impossible. "If you're as much a human as a demon spawn, then I'm as much of a human as a pretty unicorn princess!" Mai still wasn't talking, but I could feel her heart beating, so she didn't kill herself. 

            "Joey…" She said, she was finally talking. 

            "What is it, Mai. I'll do anything, just please, please, don't do something we'll all regret."

            "I don't understand. How can you love this freak?" She asked.

            "I loved you when I thought you were normal, and I love you now. That means that I don't give a rat's ass about your history." I didn't care anymore, in fact, if it wasn't for the fact that I was still in the hospital, I would have forgotten about it. All that mattered to me about Mai was that she was alright.

            "You're…" She started.

            "I don't make a lot of sense, do I?" I said softly. 

            "Shut…up…just…kiss me!" She ordered. Of course I wanted to, I was waiting for the right moment. So I laid it on, hard and smooth, my tongue meeting hers. When we were finished the twinkle had come back into her eyes. I was still worried about what she was going to do, so I supported her up and walked over out of the room.

            "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked. Mai insisted that I call the rest of the gang over so that we could tell them about this. She said she understood what I meant, that maybe her past wasn't as important as the present, the gang had been really accepting, especially Yugi. 

            "This is just like me and Yami." He said. "Not exactly, but it's just like it. It may not be normal, but it's not something freaky."

            "In fact, you're actually more human then you think." Serenity said. Mai smiled, even though it confused me. God, she was so beautiful when she smiled. We had doused the place in gasoline, and Mai was holding a lighter in her hands. 

            "Yeah, I know what I'm doing." She said.

            "Do you think that those girls had souls?" Tea asked Yugi. "Will they be at peace?" 

            "Well, the desire of anything living is to live, and they're doing that. Doing that in Mai. Maybe that will give them peace." Yami's voice sounded. Tristan, who had been silent the entire time, threw a flower into the hospital before Mai torched it.

            "Goodbye, my sisters, and my past. I guess I was afraid to come back here, but now…now, I'm glad…to have seen you." Mai said before chucking the lighter into the open door. 

            The flames were intense, but we had to leave before the fire department showed up. I walked Mai home, and when we got to her door, she kissed me just like I did to her. I was initially shocked when she did this, but I was so pleased that I kissed her back. She didn't say anything as I walked her in, but I knew what she wanted to say. She may have been able to say "thank you" in her own ways, even "I'm sorry" had it's own meaning, but here, among the shadows of Mai's living room, I was finally able to conceive of what she was about to say. 

            "I love you." 


	9. The doorway

The group of us walked into the cave, barely illuminated by the glow of our lanterns.

            "So, what makes you think that it's here?" I turned and asked Yugi. He looked straight through me into the cave's darkness, and then walked right past me as if I wasn't there.

            "Hey, I'm talking here!" I called out.

            "Cool it, Mai." Joey said. I turned towards him, and found myself smiling despite the fact that I didn't want to. He always seemed to mellow me out, and I was glad he was here, although I'd never admit it. 

            "I mean, it's a cave, what could be in here? There's no sun for plants, and animals wouldn't be able to eat much unless they ate rocks." I said, walking forward. Yugi had gone ahead, still acting like either of us weren't there. So Joey and I walked together. We hadn't gotten very far in the cave until Joey, like a perfect klutz, tripped and twisted his ankle. Varon, the other person completing our party of four, laughed hysterically. I knew that both men were in competition over me, I didn't care, I thought it was actually pretty funny. Varon wasn't talking much. 

            "God, you're an idiot." I said with a laugh. He laughed at his own misfortune like me, so I figured I wasn't going to embarrass him anymore, so I helped him up. We started moving again, but he was moving so slowly and with a limp that I eventually started supporting him. This cave had a really freaky vibe to it, and I didn't want to be alone. Although I could have asked Varon to do it, I don't think he would have liked it, so he led the way. 

            But still, even though I told Varon to slow down, he was still moving faster then I would have liked. I kept shouting at him to slow down, and he would, but then he'd just speed up again. 

            "Why don't we just let him go?" Joey said. "Yugi went off alone and we hadn't stumbled upon a corpse of his yet." 

            "I don't like it when people go off alone like that." I responded. Varon was still moving extremely fast.

            "Will you slow down, asshole!" I told him; maybe me being serious would fix the problem." He stopped.

            "That's it, I'm sick of asking you to slow the fuck down. You help Joey, I'll go ahead." I ordered, taking the lantern. Varon stared at me a little like the way a deer stares at an oncoming bus, but he went and supported Joey as I took the lead. Although I was sure that if I went too far, that one of them would end up dead, I still moved quickly. They both liked me, and as such, they both hated each other, and so, I wanted them to get along. Then maybe, I could decide something about them. 

Joey 

When Varon started supporting me, I was initially very nervous. I knew he liked Mai, and he knew I liked Mai. The man who said hell hath no fury like a woman scorned hasn't seen one of Mai's lovers. 

"There…is something I don't understand." I said. "Why…why do you follow her?" I asked Varon, who didn't look like he had an answer.

"I…I follow Mai because I enjoy her company." Varon said. At least we were being honest with each other, that was something of an accomplishment. 

"What about you?" He asked.

"I…I don't know. There is something…something I've never been able to understand. Ever since I've met her, I've been unable to forget about her." I responded.

"That doesn't answer the question." Varon responded. 

"Yeah, probably not." I said. "I guess…I guess I follow her because…well, as I said, I don't really know. All I know is that I miss her when she's not around." 

"Hmph, that's it." Varon noted. He wanted to have more bragging rights, so when Mai had to choose between us, he'd have some leverage. 

"When you look at Mai, what do you see?" I asked him.

"I…is that a trick question?" he asked, his tone dropping. "When you look at Mai, you see Mai." He was even more of a dimwit then me. 

"That's it…huh? I see…a woman who is lost, yet there is such strength and fierceness within that she could live on in her loss and not lose her own soul." God, I was talking really weird, but I hoped that someday I would have the courage to express this to Mai. "But…she doesn't want to live alone with her loss, because loss is something that's heavy and burdensome, and if someone shares the grief then they take a part of her into themselves."

"You make very little sense, Wheeler, but I get it. Sorta." Varon said with a smile. Was he actually being nice to me? Even if it was just for Mai's sake. I saw her lantern ahead in the distance, but she probably wasn't paying attention to us, she probably thought it was just guy talk. It was, but it wasn't guy talk about cars, guns, and sports or anything. 

"There…there is something I have to understand. Why can't I forget about her?" I said aloud, but it was hypothetical, I didn't expect Varon to answer. So we walked in silence, Mai was moving faster then the both of us, her lantern getting dimmer. I was holding one, so we weren't going to run out of light. 

"I guess…I guess I can't forget about her because I owe her so much." I said.

"That could be true. She helped you save your sister's eyes." Varon said. So he heard about that. 

"She…talked a lot about you." He admitted as if it was painful to say. "She said that there was a lot that you two had in common."

"Hey, you got a lot in common with her. I at least figured that much out." I said. I don't know why, but if he was acting depressed it didn't make me feel good. Maybe because Mai cared about him too?

The cave opened up into a natural cavern of some kind. It creeped me out a little, because of the large building that dominated it. There was sunlight coming from an opening at the top.

"I think I understand now." Varon said. Both of us were looking at Mai, who was waiting for us at the entrance to the large building. Its architecture was Greek, with large columns that appeared to be made of marble. 

"Understand?"

"Why you can't forget her." He continued. He looked really sad, was he going to say something he would regret.

"You can't…you can't forget her because there is something missing when she is not around." I admitted that this was true.

"It's more then just history, you have the present shared. I had originally taken to her because we shared something, you two shared something too, but you got her too do something I could never do."

"Really, and what's that?" Was this guy trying to trick me or something?

"You bridged the gap…to her heart." He said. I was unsure of what he was talking about. Did I really do that? How did I do that? I wanted to know how to do that, and if I already did it, that would be really weird.

"How'd I do that?" I asked. If he was so smart, then he should be able to tell me.

"Because she sacrificed herself for you." He said. When did she do that? Did something happen after she beat me when the Atlantis weird guy was doing crap? Something she didn't tell me. Must be, and she must not have wanted me to worry about her when that happened. 

"I think…I think you can walk by yourself now." Varon said. I nodded, and I walked towards Mai. She looked towards me with a look of understanding, and I came up to her. My muscles were quaking with anticipation, my knees were growing weak. I looked at her, and she almost appeared smaller in the faint light. I shut my eyes and moved towards her, her lips tasted like honey against mine. 

I thought I heard Varon scampering away, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He loved her too, but I loved her more. When I opened my eyes, I looked above at the building. It appeared to be some kind of temple, and so, we walked inside. I turned around just once to see if Varon had come back, but all I saw was the stone walls of the cavern, and Yugi, sitting across the way on a stone rock. He'd watched the entire moment, and even he looked unsure of what just happened. 

I looked into the temple, and saw reliefs and pictures. Although each of the people in the reliefs were different, they all depicted the same scene.

Two people, who loved each other immensely, getting married at the door. 


	10. Goodbye

            This will be my last story in this collection of fics. I want to thank all of you for your support, and use this space to shamelessly promo my next work. It will be all the Joey x Mai you all have, from the reviews, grown to love me for, as well as a few other pairings. I'm going to start a real story saga after this. It will be rated R because I'm going to use not only language and violence, but also sexual situations and occult references, not extremely overt, but I just want to be safe. I'll just tell you that it is a fantasy story, and Joey and Mai will be our two heroes. 

            But, without further adieu, the final story…

            I knew this day would come, but that didn't make it any easier. I was doing what I wanted, and yet it pained me so much that whenever I thought of it, I had heart pain. 

            "Mai." I asked her, her face looking towards me with an expression that said she understood. "Mai, I don't know…if what I'm doing is the right thing."

            "That's part of life." She said simply, blowing her nose with a tissue. Man, she was so beautiful, so beautiful that I almost thought she wasn't real. 

            "What do you mean?" I asked.

            "We don't always know whether we do the right thing or not. We just do things."

            "But this isn't what I want to do. I want to stay here; with you."

            "I know that, do you think I don't want that to happen." She said, stifling a tear. She had to be strong, and she was doing a terrible job. Well, I wasn't doing anything better. I had already said my farewells to the gang, but I wanted her alone to see me go, not even Serenity could come down with me to the docks. 

            "I'll…stay…in touch." I said with a tear. 

            "I know." Mai said. "That way I know you're not dead."

            "Weep no more, my lady." I quoted a line from a song my mother was fond of singing. I don't remember how it went, but that was the line I remembered, as I wiped away the tear about to escape from her eye. 

            "I…I don't understand why we're so sad. This is what you wanted." She said. I knew that was true.

            "It…it was what I wanted." I replied. "I still want it, I guess, but I don't want it as much as I want you." 

            "You really mean that?" She said. Through all the time I spent with Mai, I was never as honest as I was now. Perhaps I hadn't been fair to her until know, maybe I was just afraid of how she would react. But this was the last time I would see her for a while, I had no reason to be afraid now. If I was, I risked any chance I had of making her still feel loved as I left. 

            "Yeah, I do. Always." I said, bringing her in close.

            "Joey…" She said softly, just before we kissed. Magic, pure magic. I could feel all the tension that was building from my final meeting with her being realized through my mouth. 

            As it ended, regretfully, I grabbed my luggage. 

            "Goodbye…goodbye." I said. When I got on the boat, I turned around and waved to her, but she was nowhere to be found. I guess…I guess she didn't want me to see her cry. I understood that. I saw her car in the parking lot, and I thought I caught a glimpse of her seated inside. 

            I knew I would see her again; I prayed and waited for those days. But before the ship left, I paused to find something in my pocket. It was a note, addressed to me, in Serenity's handwriting. I opened the folded piece of paper, expecting a tearful farewell letter, but what I got was something else.

            _Joey_

                        I know, it's hard to be honest about your feelings. You can't tell me things because we are so close, and the rest of your close friends are guys. So I'm going to write this as if I was an anonymous observer. I'm going to say that you're being too timid. I was told that the best person who can tell if you're in love is someone who knows you the best. And there is no one who knows you better then us. We know you better then you know yourself, because if you're reading this when I think you are, you're denying your feelings. Joey, as someone who knows you, I'm going to ask you a question, and please, make sure you think about the answer. What will you gain? What will you lose? It's not a simple question, I know. But make sure you think fast or you'll really lose what you've been seeking your entire life. 

_            Now, I'm going to stop writing before I cry up and mess up the paper, so I'll write something that I'm sure I told you before you left. No matter what, all of us believe that you know how to make the right decisions. _

_                                                                        Serenity, with help from Tristan_

            Oh God, I was being an idiot. How could I have been so blind? Here I was, chasing something that I didn't want anymore, and why the hell was I doing it? Because I wanted it before? God, that was the dumbest fucking reason ever. Shit, shit, shit, I hope I had enough time to correct this. I ran off the boat quickly, nearly blowing over some old broad who managed to curse in that way old people cursed, saying some mild curse like "oh, my word" as if it was saying the mother of all words herself. I ran off just in time, the ship was leaving port as I exited the harbor. I ran to Mai's car, which hadn't moved, but it was empty. I then saw her standing on some wooden support beams, to get a better view of the departing ship. Because the ledge was narrow, I hid and waited for her to step down before I called out to her.

            "MAI!" I shouted.

            "Wha…Joey…what are you…" She was shaken and nervous, recently crying. I came up close to her and hugged her.

            "Mai….I have what I want…right here…I promise I'll never leave you." I said, burying my head in her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around my back. 

            "You're…you're foolish. You've given away the world for me. You know I think that's idiotic."

            "Yeah, I know."

            "But, you know." She said as we looked towards the sun. "I don't think…you're wrong." 


	11. What feeds on memories

            Yeah, I know I said I had finished this, but the reviews and feedback I have gotten from you, my loyal readers, has changed my mind. I may not be able to update as fast as I normally do, perhaps semi-daily from now on at best (Although I love writing, I've got college as well), but I'll try to update as much as I can and give you more stories to read. Thank you all, my readers. Because of your support, I still want to write for all of you.

                                                                        ~M

            _Joey_

I had no clue where I was, only that it was dark, and that I was surrounded by a circle of women who were chanting in some odd language that I'd never heard before. They held hands and spun around chanting like idiots until their leader came up to me.

            "Poor man." She said with a sneer. "Let's see what you're made of. You'll become my servant yet." She grabbed the sides my head with her cold, pale hands. Almost immediately after she touched, my mind felt like it was on fire. 

            "Interesting." I heard her say through the blinding pain. I couldn't move, my arms and legs were bound and splayed out like I was on a sacrificial altar, which I may have well been on. So I shut my eyes and tried to drown out the pain, but it was inside of my mind; no other part of my body hurt. It felt like her long, bony, pianist-like fingers were probing every inch of my brain.

"She will betray you." I heard her voice through the pain. "This woman that dominates your mind, she will. She is fickle and vain." 

"Get the fuck outta my mind!" I shouted. 

"Defiance? Let's see how long you last." She pushed her hands harder against my head, and the resulting pain came into my mind. I could barely breathe, and tears were streaming down my face, almost as if abandoning my face in fear of the fire that would consume them. 

"You know as well as I do that she will not stay. She is flighty and aloof. Too spirited to be bound to one man." I kept hearing her talk. How could I hear her so clearly through the blazing inferno of pain? 

"Fucking bitch!" I cursed, trying to get her away. "You talk about her again and I'll rip you a new one." I had to get her to stop; her poisonous words were winning a battle against my own thoughts. 

"A stubborn one, all men are that way. You won't last long." She dug her nails into the side of my head, and I was sure that blood was oozing out. 

"No!" I shouted. "Mai would never do anything like that. Mai would never betray me!" 

"You're too arrogant. Look now at a vision of the future." I felt the pain subside briefly as an image played in my mind. It was Mai and me, and we were hugging.

"I think your vision of betrayal is busted." I cracked. But then, I saw a flash of steel in Mai's hand, and I watched my eyes bug out. The me in the vision gave out a yelp, and Mai stepped away, and I watched myself with a dagger stuck in my chest. My T-shirt started soaking in blood, my skin started turning pale. I watched the vision of me drop to his knees, then collapse on the ground lifeless. And then, I saw Mai smile.

"This…" I was trying to fight it; this was just some trick the fucking witch was pulling.

"No!" I shouted again.

"Believe it, fool boy. She seeks only to benefit herself." Her voice sounded again, and with it came the searing pain. 

"You're just trying to screw with me, that ain't real!" I shouted, shouted because I was trying to hear myself over the pain. But then, why did I doubt what I said. I knew Mai wasn't the type of person to be bogged down by the simple things, she was all about extravagance. That was one of the reasons I enjoyed being around her; she was never dull. I had always questioned whether she liked me, because she was not always sincere with her attitude. Was this vision true, if not literally then metaphorically? Would she leave me, if not with a knife in my chest, then with a broken and jagged heart? 

Mai 

God, where was Joey? I knew that he had been abducted by that shit-tacular cult that hated men, but I had been searching this creepy nightmare place for an hour, and there was no trace of Joey. 

Then I heard him screaming. 

"Joey, where are you!" I shouted. "I'm coming!" From the sounds of the pain, I don't think he would have heard me over his own screams, but I still had to try. Following his voice, I found a secret passage to some kind of basement or other. Down the stairs I climbed, punching robed women whenever they came up towards me. They fell down in heaps, and I eventually found my way to a chant circle of women. Joey was in the center, with a woman standing over him, her hands dug into his head like she was trying to rip out his brain. 

"Joey!" I shouted. No response from him, but the woman turned around.

"You are too late, woman. I have poisoned his mind. He no longer thinks of you as anything but an enemy."

"Fucking bitch!" I shouted, just like Joey would say. "What makes you think you can break what the two of us share?" I demanded. 

"Why don't you look into his mind yourself?" The woman asked. "The platform he is on possesses the magic capable. You can if you put your hands on his head. Come and see my handiwork, come and see the destruction of his mind." I was reminded of Marik, how he fucked with me and Joey helped me. Now it was time for me to do the same. I grabbed Joey's head.

"It's me, Joey. It's Mai. Come on, snap out of this. You're not so weak as to get screwed up by some bitch digging in your mind and planting falsehoods." I said. Once I grabbed his head, I felt a surge of pain, like my skin was being painted with napalm. But I started seeing images in his mind. Images of him and me. I saw an image of me stabbing him, and I nearly let go out of fear. I wanted to speak to the woman, but I was still in Joey's mind. I couldn't leave him like that. 

"Joey, don't believe any of this. This is all fake. I would never betray your heart. Please, Joey, listen to my voice, and snap out of it." I was pleading, I had never pleaded before, especially not to him. But I did it freely, anything to stop him from seeing these false images. Images like this could scar him for life, and I didn't want that to happen. He was too important to me to just throw away. 

Joey 

I felt myself bodiless, lost and alone. All around me was searing pain and the image of Mai's smile as she stabbed me. I couldn't ignore it, like my eyes were being forced open. I couldn't fight it, and I felt myself shrinking, the bitch's visions overtaking my thoughts.

"She…she will betray me." My mind rationalized. Yes, she would. 

The part of me that still disbelieved was trying to force itself to come forward. 

"No!" I shouted. "This is a damn fake!" It was like throwing a clod of dirt until a tornado, but it still kept shouting. 

Mustering all of my strength, I tried to break the spell. Despite all my fear of the pain, and the image that seemed more and more true every second, I summoned up all my courage, as much force as I could muster going into my voice.

"I…I love Mai!" 

Mai 

I felt something, something rushing by me like a car that speeds by. It was Joey's voice, and it told me he loved me. I knew he did, but we had never said it to each other. This wasn't the time to hold onto my pride, or my dignity, or anything like that. This was my chance to break the illusion forever. I knew that I was in his mind, so I tried to move forward towards the sound of the voice, trying to move despite the searing pain assaulting my limbs, the pain of that woman's spell poisoning Joey's mind. 

There! There he was. Crouched on the ground, fighting a losing battle. I went over to him, and cradled his body in my arms. He looked like he had used all of his energy to shout, and now his very image was fading, being overtaken by her spell. I held him close, and whispered into his ear, hoping that it would be enough.

"I love you too." 

Joey 

My eyes opened. I wasn't being tormented by my own mind anymore, I was back in the real world, and Mai was standing over me like the woman had done before. She went into my mind, she broke the spell. 

"What? How?" The bitch who cast that spell on me said. Mai let go of my head and walked over to that bitch, smiling wickedly as she punched the bitch into unconsciousness, the chant circle of women fleeing in fear. She came over to me, and undid the bonds on my arms and legs. 

"Can you walk?" She asked. 

"Eugh, not really." I said. She turned around.

"Get on my back." She said. With difficulty, I maneuvered myself to climb on her back, my arms wrapped around her chest. It was hard not to feel a bit awkward considering where my arms were, but Mai didn't appear to give a damn, so I shouldn't either. 

"How do you feel?" She asked as she ascended a set of stairs.

"Physically, fine, but my mind feels like it's been raped." I said. There was still fire from that spell in my mind, but the images of Mai stabbing me were fading, being replaced by images that I know were real. 

Mai holding me in her arms. Mai whispering in my ear.

Mai loving me too. 


	12. Her Warrior's Heart

Deep in her heart, I knew she wanted to keep on fighting. I wouldn't have weathered this chaotic storm of a battle this far without her, and, perhaps, if Tyche, the Goddess of Fortune, smiled upon us, we'd win this fight, and have nothing standing between us and the sweet silver light of victory.  
  
But I told her to stop, talked to her through breaths so ragged that one would have thought I was sick, which was possibly true.  
"Mai...please...we've got...to stop this." I was trying to be rational.  
"Joey." She said calmly, her hair billowing in the stormy wind. "We can't stop, there is too much at stake."  
"I...I know. That's why...I don't want...to risk losing..."  
"Finish that sentence and I'll never respect you for as long as we both live." She said. I was on my knees, and she was standing up. She was full of vigor and spirit, and me, well, I felt spent and exhausted, nearly dead.  
"Mai...you've seen...what we have to face...we've beaten our main enemy, but these...demons, whatever they are...keep on coming." I tried to breathe deeply, to ease the aching in my tired muscles.  
"You think I can't see that?" She had been fighting for so long, how could she still be standing. I thought it was hopeless, and she, almost naively, clung to the hope that we could win.  
"Why?" I asked, finally catching my breath. I was still too weak to stand up, but I was able to stop speaking in hoarse tones. "The numbers are limitless, yet you're still fighting?"  
"There are times when you just gotta fight, no matter how tired you are." She said, turning her head to look at me.  
  
She'd been fighting her whole life, fighting for the life she wanted and could never have. A life with people who cared for her, and who she cared for. She never had that as a child, and I'm sure it made her cry. But now, now, she had all of us, and she was going to keep on fighting. Were we that important, was it us: Me, Yuge, Tea, Tristan, Serenity, Duke, all of us, were we go important as to kindle a fiery tempest inside of her that gave her limitless strength and stamina.  
"I...never thought I'd be so important." I thought. Everyone else was safe, they had escaped long before, only Mai stayed behind, after we beat the major demon, to make sure I got out. That was before the demons surrounded us. Once we were surrounded, I nearly cried at how hopeless it was. But she, no, she would have none of that.  
"Buck up." She told me. "You should save your tears for the woman that you love. There are demons here, and they don't like weepy shit. So, fight. Failing that, quit crying!" She had commanded. Tea told me that when I was weeping at Duelist Kingdom, and Mai gave me her entry card, that I was really dense with our farewell. It wasn't just for Serenity; Mai didn't want to see me cry. I didn't know what that meant. Well, of course, it meant we were friends, but was there something more to that? That thought gave me confidence, I was curious about what Mai saw in me. I really thought I was out of her league, and I mean really out of her league.  
  
So, why did I ask her to stop fighting? I pondered this question. Was it because I thought it was hopeless, or was it because I didn't want Mai risking herself for me. I risked myself for her before, and she hated it, she had made that evident to me.  
"So, I don't want to see her hurt. But if she stops fighting, we're dead. Why did I ask her to stop?  
  
It took me a minute, but I realized the answer. Because if we were to die, then I wanted us to die together. I didn't want to see Mai ripped apart by demons, only to sit there and watch helplessly. If we were faced with the hordes of Hell, then I wanted us in full lover's position, damning all the demons with the sight of an emotion that transcended even death.  
  
But at the same time, I wanted Mai to live. Even if it was without me, I wanted her to experience the joy of the world.  
"Fight...Mai." I said softly, trying to build up enough strength so that I could eventually join her in the fight. "Fight with all your beauty and courage. You are so strong that I wouldn't dare stop you." I tried to smile; I felt a wave of courage coming back to me, through surges of emotion fueled by the burning in my heart, the longing I had for that beautiful Amazon.  
  
I stood up and cracked my knuckles. Mai started grinning.  
"Let's have a contest." I said, bringing up my fists.  
"A dollar a kill." Mai returned. We stood back to back, and the demons flew around like hawks circling dead prey. We weren't dead, and we weren't going to lose.  
"Let's go!" I shouted, and that's when the tides of war erupted. Mai and I fought together, side by side. Not one demon could hope to come close to me, for that bouncing Amazon would have it taste her fist, or her heel. And neither could a damned hellspawn come towards the world's most beautiful woman, for her bodyguard would be on him like white on rice, it's scaly demon skin would yield to the fist of a man who fought like the woman beside him.  
  
When the crowds finally started to die, both of us were exhausted.  
"I'm...I'm tired, Joey." Mai said, kneeling. There were no demons left. Despite all odds, we won, and know, I leaned against her, pressing that beautiful head to my chest.  
"I know. We both are." I said. We were breathing hard, neither of us could focus our eyes well, and we both had no desire to walk anywhere.  
"We have to go." Mai said. "I'm hungry as well, and that's important."  
"I dunno. I can barely feel my legs." I said. I really could, but they actually felt like heavy weights were attached.  
"What kind of quitter attitude is that?" Mai mentioned, as she stood up, shaking off the effects of her fatigue like it was nothing. A carefree attitude dominated her speech. Had it not been for the hordes of demons she fought to save me, I would've thought she hated me, or at least thought indifferently, like she did to so many others.  
"It's not a quitter attitude." I responded. "It's more to do with fatigue."  
"I'm tired, and I'm going. You're coming too." She grabbed me by the collar and forced me to stand.  
"Can we...at least walk out together?" I asked meekly.  
"That's fine." She responded. I wrapped my right arm around her, and together, we left the building, towards the smiling view of all of our friends. I was so close to Mai, and so tired, that the sound of her heart was almost as a lullaby. But it was more then just her heart I felt. I felt the true Mai, her spirit. I knew that she enjoyed fighting those demons for me, and I enjoyed watching her. She was supporting me as we walked now, not because out of any weakness, but because of the strength I could feel from her body.  
  
For deep in her heart, after the trash-talk and attitude were gone, all that was there was her compassion and love. But there was strength there too, something I knew she had but never thought I told her about. It was those two things, her heart and her strength, that I loved. She loved enough so that I knew I loved her, yet she was strong enough to need no one else. She had the power to take on the world herself, and win, but instead, she chose to sacrifice some of her thunder for us. I was flattered, really flattered. But Mai still had her fight, and when I watched her fight those demons for me, I understood something that I never thought I'd understand, and that was what attracted me to her.  
  
Deep in her heart, there was still thunder. Still one that believed life was something to be conquered. I never wanted her to feel that way. I was really not an obstacle, so I didn't want Mai to think that I was nothing. Although I didn't want to take her thunder, I wanted her to know that no matter what happened, that she didn't always have to fight. Because everytime I was around her, whenever she was even in the slightest bit of trouble, I lost the will to fight. It made me shiver and quake when she was in danger. I could barely rationalize myself to stand and fight with her against those demons.  
  
I just didn't want to lose her. No matter her attitude, no matter her brashness. But if I gave her my life, would I lose the Mai that I loved? Would she become the gentle, quiet nurturer that I didn't want her to be? I was confused. I didn't want Mai hurt, yet I wanted her warrior's heart.  
  
I guess that all I can do is cast my fear aside, and help her along the way. Until we realize the life we searched for together. 


	13. Dark Rose of the Mirror

She was, of course, every bit a rose as one woman could be. She had all the full, rich beauty of the blossom, yet the surprise and danger of the thorns. No, she was more dangerous then a simple thorn. She was the snake that hid under the flowers, ready to bite at the hand that finds it's resting place.  
  
And I wouldn't want it any other way.  
  
Mai Valentine and I had been through a lot. We were so in debt to each other that it would take an eternity to repay each other. So whenever she asked me to do something, I would do it, just like she would do for me.  
  
But nothing prepared me for what she would ask me that one night. We were at a large mansion party, the kind rich snobs had to show off how unnecessarily extravagant they were, and how foolishly they could squander their money. Anyway, Jean Claude Magnum happened to be there, Mai's old "lover", if you could call him that. The only person who that asshole irritated more then me was Mai. She wanted nothing more to do with him ever since she killed his ass twice dueling. But when his goon squad showed up, it was time for us to leave.  
  
She grabbed my hand with a vice like grip and led me through dark passageways that almost seemed to twist on itself. The moon cast eerie shadows that danced like ghosts on the carpet and walls.  
"Mai, we can't escape by going into the house. We need to get out."  
"Knowing Magnum, that's what he's planning. We've got to do something else." She responded, moving further into the labyrinth of hallways and rooms.  
  
When we eventually stopped, we were in a study. There was only one large window; Mai and I had to duck to avoid a searchlight passing through the room. The furniture in this room consisted of a massive desk full of doodads that were utterly useless, bookshelves of very scientific, and therefore boring and useless books, and a large, full-length mirror.  
"Joey. You know what would happen if Magnum found you and not me?" Mai asked.  
"I would think he'd try to make me tell him where you were."  
"Except that Magnum is a wuss. Do you think he'd let you go if you didn't know where I was?"  
"Why are you asking?" I changed the subject. Mai responded by touching the mirror. Shocked, I watched the surface of it ripple as if it was water.  
"Awesome!" I shouted.  
"Don't touch it." Mai ordered. I immediately obeyed. It was something that Yugi or someone who knew that magic stuff would be interested in.  
"So, what does that mean?" I asked innocently.  
  
It took me a second later to realize what she was planning.  
"You're going to..." I started, but then she cut me off.  
"If they find you alone, they'll let you go. I...I'm not going to lose to him. I've known Magnum for more then the two times I told you about. And those meetings led to occurrences that I...I won't speak of now. Suffice it to say that I won't lose to him, not now, not after I gained so much. So I'm going to chance the unknown. But...but I won't chance you to it. You're going to stay here." She ordered.  
"No!" I said. "I don't want to lose you by having you jump into some mirror just to escape. You're strong, you can fight him! I trust you!"  
"If you trust me, then why won't you let me do as I please?"  
"Because it's not my trust in you that I'm worried about, it's the realization at the mirror's other side."  
"You're...so kind to me, Joey, especially when I've been such a bitch to you."  
"Just because you've been a bitch doesn't mean you haven't been kind." I said, touching her cheek. "Sometimes, life needs a bitch."  
"Yeah, you're right." She says.  
"We can fight together!" I offered. She shook her head violently.  
"No, Joey. It's too dangerous for you. I...I know...you don't like me. I make you uncomfortable, and you get really nervous around me." She said sadly. I looked at her for a long time. What was she saying? Didn't she know that I really cared about her? I thought women were supposed to know these things.  
  
"Joey, please." Mai pleaded with me. I had never seen this side of her before; she actually wanted me not to help her.  
"I can't risk having the unknown swallow you up. Listen to me, and don't follow." She winked at me, and then disappeared through the mirror, a still pool rippling as she passed through and disappeared from view.  
  
I stood there for a minute, not having the energy to curse her or wish her luck. I didn't want to lose this dark rose that was called Mai Valentine. She didn't want me to get hurt; I had to respect that, but I...I had to be selfish once. I didn't want Mai to be hurt, and at the very least, I wanted to know if she was all right.  
  
"Better go on Mai, you've got a bandit on your tail." I said, remembering part of a line from a Charlie Daniel's song. I knew she'd be mad at me, but I had to tell her something, face to face. There was something that was so important that she know that I would risk hell and damnation just to tell it to her.  
  
I wanted to tell her that she was strong. She didn't know me as well as she thought. For one thing, she should know that I never wanted to see Jean Claude Magnum again, even if it was just his goons. She should know that I'm both brave and foolhardy enough to risk everything for an adventure in another dimension or wherever the hell that thing led to. And even if she was right about me being nervous around her, and sure, maybe I was a bit uncomfortable and flustered when she and I talked.  
  
But that didn't mean I didn't like her. And that was the thought that filled my mind as I jumped through the mirror. 


	14. Poetic clash of the gods

I would have normally thought that, with my mind subjected to the raging tempest of an infernal magic, I would not have even noticed what transpired next, but I was wrong. With my bruised eyes giving me such a hazy and blurred vision, I would never have thought that I would see that vision in my head, but I was wrong. By all logic, I couldn't have noticed what happened, but logic could never describe that moment. I guess moment is too short to describe it, it was pretty long, and definitely memorable.  
  
Of course, I can barely remember what happened before that moment, just that I was bound and gagged, my body cuffed to a stone table that had been stood up so I could face the strange, evil man wearing a brown robe that made him look like some kind of priest or monk.  
"And the dead came forth from the hells and the sea!" He shouted. This may have come from the Bible or some other book, but it didn't sound like anything I'd ever heard of, not that I cared about this holy shit anyway.  
"What the fuck are you doing!" I distinctly remember shouting, although it took everything in my power to do.  
"A good question, boy. You are about to see the power of a god!" He shouted. I think he started moving in some kind of ritualistic dance or motions, but I couldn't make out any explicit details.  
  
"Hold it right there, asswipe!" Came Mai's loud voice, piercing through the lethargic haze of my mind like a clarion call.  
"Mai?" I tried to croak out. My mouth tasted of blood, and felt like boiled rubber, so it was hard for me to make out words now. I could speak fine a minute ago, so he must have done something to my mouth.  
"And when a woman touched by darkness enters." The priest-man responded. This was the start of what I could remember, and as if some divine force or other wanted this to be seen, my vision cleared and I made out that Mai, that beautiful Mai who was wearing a tan trench coat like a spy from old 40s movies, had positioned herself between that psycho priest- fuck and me.  
"Don't! You'll get hurt!" I cried out, although it sounded to me like random babblings from a fool.  
"Joey." She said quietly, but not looking at me. "Thank you for all you've done for me. Even though I knew it already, you taught me that life could only be lived to the fullest when you live it with someone else. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart." She sounded so sincere, yet sad. Was she planning something. I tried to talk again, but the pain in my mouth gave way, and I spouted out a string of words that I couldn't remember.  
  
Mai ignored them.  
"And as for you, I think you've gone on far enough. Your god or other will not be brought forth."  
"So, the dark woman would contend against the father of God to save a helpless child?"  
"This dark woman, or whatever my name is, will save the world by destroying your psychotic dreams right now!" Mai said, taking one step towards the man.  
  
Then I saw a red haze form around the man's hand. Fire! Did some electrical equipment catch.  
"By fire, be purged!" The man shouted, and I saw the red haze move towards us. Was this guy making fire? Well, with all the shit he talked about gods and stuff, I would expect fire if any of his babblings were true.  
  
That truth was my worst fear. Mai had nothing to shield herself with, magical fire or no. I saw her move her hand out in front of her.  
"Not much of a merciful god if you have to burn what opposes you." Mai cracked. Mai would crack jokes were she in the jaws of Hell itself, where we may well have been. I wanted to say something, a word of warning, encouragement, anything, but my mouth wouldn't form the words.  
  
But the red, fiery haze subsided. What just happened?  
"We may fight." Mai said, her voice sounding desperate and overworked, like an exhausted hero fighting a battle with his eternal foe, and he was gathering enough strength to deliver the final blow.  
"The dark woman may clash against the father of God. The sun may become afraid to peak it's golden rays from the grip of the horizon, the moon's silver light may drown itself in the darkness of this battle. When dark clashes against dark, the world of light will tremble." The man said, still speaking in that poetic shit that he'd e talking about since I started hearing him.  
  
"There is no may if you won't stop. I'll fight you. The seas may turn incarnadine with blood, and the snow itself may ignite and combust." Mai started, reading poetically like he did, but when she read the message, I felt a strange sense of peace, but I couldn't understand why.  
"Our battle will destroy the world!" The man shouted, but it almost sounded desperate, as if he would lose against Mai and was trying to bluff her.  
"This battle might rage until Time herself smites us for blasphemy." Man, this poetry holy shit was giving me a headache, even now, with Mai reading the lines. "I will fight, fight back if you will, but I will not let you do as you please!"  
"You know." The man made an offer. "If the boy is sacrificed to our god, then the world will be released from pain and all suffering."  
"I made a promise once. Yes, it seems petty and fleeting compared to what you have just said, but I keep my honor." Now she was talking in ways I could understand. "I promised that I would look out for him, just as he did for me. So, I will damn the world's salvation to save him. Come then, father of God, the time for talk has ended."  
  
After that, I don't remember what happened. There was a brief flash of bright light, then an extended period of darkness with howling wind that whipped around me like lost souls were playing with whatever part of my body they touched.  
  
Before the haze cleared, the feeling returned to my mouth. I could finally muster the strength to speak again. I knew what I had to say. Fuck all the poetry crap Mai and the priest said, all I needed to say was one thing, but I still wasn't sure how to say it.  
"Mai!" I shouted first. That was the easy part, but what I wanted to say next was tricky. How could I word it, and word it correctly.  
"Please...don't...get...hurt." I said with weakening strength in my voice. I could barely hear myself talk, which probably meant that she could not.  
  
After what felt like an eternity, the winds died down, and the darkness cleared to reveal that I was in the same place I'd always been. The priest was nowhere to be seen.  
  
And Mai? She stood where she had been standing before, but she had turned to face me. Her hair was unkempt but she otherwise looked just as she did before my vision failed. I wanted to say something, but there was nothing that I could say, and my gummy mouth was acting up again. So instead, she walked over towards me. In my mind, I was thinking that she had sacrificed the world for me, sacrificed whatever the priest asshole was talking about release from pain and suffering so that I would live.  
  
I thought she was stupid. Logically, why should I matter if the world can be saved. But when I looked into her eyes, those violet eyes, I immediately found myself drawn to thinking something else. She wanted me to live, wanted me to experience hardship and pleasure both. And as she freed me from my captivity; I was drawn to something else she said. The lesson she said she taught me.  
  
Would she share her life with me? 


	15. No circle incomplete

"Mai?" I asked timidly, like I was afraid that her response would be something terrible.  
"Joey..." She was facing away from me, her knees clutched to her chest, and so she rolled her neck back limply to face me. Her eyes seemed glassy, almost as if they were looking at me, but they didn't "see" me.  
"I..." She started. I couldn't stand to see her like this; she looked so...weak. Mai Valentine was not weak, not by a long shot, and seeing her weak irritated me like sand in your bathing suit.  
"What?" I asked. When she trailed off, it almost seemed like she could barely speak. "We're all right here." The group was behind me, looking over my shoulder from time to time, but I was the only one close to her.  
"I...I..." Why couldn't she finish? What was stopping her from talking?  
  
Suddenly, Mai grabbed her head like she was having a migraine.  
"Stay back!" She ordered. Tristan put his hand on my shoulder, and starting pulling me backward to comply with her wish.  
"Mai!" I shouted, trying to move towards her. All that did was cause Tristan to grab my arm and nearly throw me backward.  
"I...get away!" She shouted angrily, her eyes were now venom with an amethyst hue.  
  
I heard something boom that seemed like thunder, and Mai's body started glowing, giving off a dark purple light. I had no clue what it was, but I didn't like it. I was sure it was causing Mai to be agitated.  
"Hey, you!" I commanded the light, almost positive that it was pointless. "Get the fuck offa Mai!" Nothing else happened, and the light started to envelop her, blocking her from our view. It swept across her lithe body, enveloping those beautiful legs, that leather skirt, that fancy white blouse that wasn't buttoned all the way. Her face was the last to get surrounded.  
"Joey, I'm...sorry." She said before the darkness enveloped her.  
"No!" I shouted, trying to break free from Tristan, who had Yugi on the other side. Both of them had an arm, and I struggled with all my effort, but the two men still had me held.  
"Mai!" I kept shouting her name, somehow hoping that my shouting, for whatever reason, would bring her back. The dark light that had surrounded Mai had grown a little bigger, it was about the size of a refrigerator, but it was round.  
  
Then a heard a noise, a noise unlike any other. It sounded like a woman shouting, but the shouting sounded...orgasmic, gaining some lustful pleasure from the moans and screams of it's own voice. Tristan and Yugi let go of me, but they stood right behind me, ready to grab me again in case I went for the black hole to get Mai. I would have, but there was something in the back of my mind that told me not to just jump ahead. Something was going to happen, and I needed to wait. The woman's scream became more and more frequent, and I could swear that the dark light was starting to clear. Was Mai still inside? More importantly, was Mai hurt? I prayed to whatever God looked out for her to let her be well. I awaited almost anxiously for the sight of the dark light to clear, hoping for that beautiful woman.  
  
What I saw made me curse every fucking heavenly being out there. It was Mai all right, but not my Mai. This Mai had deep crimson skin, and her well manicured hands were long claws that dripped with a foul dark liquid that I was sure was some kind of poison. Her face was more or less Mai, other then the skin, and the fact that her blonde tresses billowed from side to side as if wind was blowing behind her, wind that no one else could feel.  
"Mai?" I called, reaching out my hand to her. The figure dashed forward, curled up it's fist, and let one fly straight at my stomach.  
"Hurk!" I let out a noise that I'd never let out before, but the sheer force of her fist was the obvious culprit. It knocked me right of my feet, past the gang, and straight into the back wall. The merciless stone did not yield, and I felt pain explode all over by mack and head. Mercifully, the feeling only lasted for a minute.  
  
I don't know what happened next, but I came to what felt like an eternity later. I had not moved from my slouched position on the wall, but everyone else had. I saw blurred shapes, one of them I think was the demon Mai, moving close to each other like they were attacking. I wanted to order everyone off of her; she may have looked like a demon, but it was still Mai, dammit. But nothing responded. I tried to gather all of my strength, and I struggled to get to my feet. Before I could, I felt someone someone's gentle hands on me.  
"Don't move yet." Came a girl's voice. I think it was Tea, but I couldn't hear very well. I shrugged her off and moved anyway, trying to move towards what I thought was Mai and the guys fighting.  
"No, Joey!" The girl's voice became insistent. "Don't go forward, it'll be too painful for you." It was pleading with me, desperately. That made me think it was Serenity.  
"Painful?" I thought. "In more ways then you could imagine." I ignored the protests, and still tried to clamber forward. The movement helped me, for my vision was returning, and I could walk without a stagger.  
  
But that brief moment of happiness would forever stand out as an eternal "fuck you!" from God. For when I vision cleared, I saw something, a shiny flash of metal, enter Mai's chest.  
"Mai!" I shouted, trying to run over towards her. Fuck my headache, fuck the pain, fuck everything but her. Her body lie collapsed on the ground, and Yugi, the person closest to her, cradled her in his arms. I ignored him and looked at her desperately, weeping and crying as if a water main broke in my eyes.  
Her eyes fluttered open, and I briefly tried to make myself presentable. All I really did was wipe away the tears on my face.  
"Thank you..." She said weakly and simply, and then her eyes shut again.  
"Mai? Mai! Mai, no!" I shouted. Even with her appearance was like that of Hell itself, she was still Mai, Mai now even if she wasn't a few moments ago. But she was gone. I knew there was nothing I could do.  
  
The group left me alone for a minute, but it seemed like too short.  
"C'mon Joey, we have to go now." Tristan said. I angrily shot a look at him.  
"Leave me the fuck alone!" I shouted, running past him and everyone there to the exit. I couldn't be around them, not after she was gone. I wanted to stay with Mai's body forever, but I couldn't. For some awful reason I couldn't bear to see her demon-looking and dead. So instead, I cried. I cried as I stumbled almost blindly home.  
  
I'm not sure how I lived after that. Every day I prayed for sweet merciful death, and yet it never came. I hadn't the courage to do it myself. I was afraid that I would chicken out. The group tried to be comforting, but they knew there words were falling on deaf ears. I constantly told them to leave me be, but it was like yelling fuck you into a jet engine: it felt good but it was pointless to do.  
  
It was exactly one month later when Yugi forced me back to where Mai had died. I wasn't sure what he meant when he told me to come. But I had nothing better to do, and I needed to apologize to him. I was acting selfishly ever since she died, and that was something that none of us wanted. I couldn't believe I'd been such a bastard. When I apologized to everyone else, they were more understanding, but I knew they felt pain because I kept mine inside.  
  
Before I could say anything, I heard a boom of thunder, and then the scream. The same fucking scream that I heard before Mai had been enveloped and changed into that demon.  
"Where are you, bitch!" I yelled. If that scream was still here, that meant that it wasn't Mai laughing, and that probably meant that she was the bitch that changed her. She caused Mai to die.  
"Joey, shut your eyes and don't look until I say so!" Yugi commanded. I did so, and I heard the screamer scream a different way. A loud shriek.  
"Bitch. Fucking rot in the hell that suits you." I said under my breath satisfyingly.  
"Open your eyes." Yugi said. I opened them, but was immediately greeted by a bright light. I shielded my eyes and tried to look at Yugi, but the look on his face was one of shock. He knew about as much as me.  
  
The white light formed into a ball, and started condensing into the form of a person. It took me one moment to recognize the flowing blonde locks, the creamy skin no longed tainted, and the eyes that sparkled as she laughed.  
"Mai!" I shouted happily, moving towards her. She was dressed in all white, not very befitting for the woman with such a sharp tongue.  
"Oh, hi Joey!" She said cheerfully, as if nothing had happened. Did she know anything that had happened? I doubted it, I wouldn't have wanted to her to know that anyway. I hugged her.  
"Whoa, there, huggy." She said, at first resisting and trying to pull me off, but I fought back so much she gave up.  
  
"You...do that again." I started, almost as if in a way to save face. "And I won't help you..." Of course that wasn't true, but why tell her that? She took enough risks in her day to day life, and I didn't want to her to know that I would bail her out did she go too far. She wouldn't have liked it anyway. 


	16. White Roses and Cherry Blossoms

            "Don't." That was all I could say. I looked at her so hard and passionately that the rest of the world seemed to fade into the background. All that mattered was the beautiful woman in front of me.

            "Don't what?" She asked. She knew what I meant, but she still asked anyway. She wanted to know how I could word this.      

"Don't do something we'll regret." I said. 

"In a worst case scenario, I won't have the ability to regret anything. In a best, neither of us will regret anything." She responded. 

"I…" I started. I knew how goddamn selfish I was acting. Here she was, selflessly offering herself to buy us some time to escape, saving all of our lives, and I was being a real asshole, saying she couldn't. Mai Valentine was certainly capable of buying us the time we needed, but that left a question: What would happen to her? None of us would be back here to help her. I knew that Mai was independent; she wouldn't have accepted our help even if she was broken and battered. 

"Then don't do something I'll regret."

"Joey, give me this." She ordered. "I've…I've only ever lived for myself. It's a bleak, depressing existence. I don't care about my real family; all of you are the closest thing to that I have. And with family, you look out for each other. This is the first time I'm ever doing something that's not for myself, and I'm going to do it. I don't fucking care if you want me to or not." 

That wasn't true for two reasons. The first was that she wanted to save us, and so that was for herself too. And the second? The second was that she had gone off on her own to fight for me before. She lost, but she had done so. Back in America, when she was brainwashed by Dartz. 

"I don't care if you want it. I'm going to be as fucking selfish as I want! I'm not going to let you do this!" Mai elbowed me in the stomach, and I felt the wind rush out of me. 

"You don't have a choice, kid." She told me. 

"No, Mai!" I shouted. "You could die!" I shouted. This was the first time that any of us had mentioned that d word. I hoped it would faze her, Mai loved life more then any of us, I thought. 

But she looked ahead.

"Then let the flowers be white roses, and the woman be Mai Valentine. You better not cry." She commanded. Barking out orders to me for her funeral. 

"Don't you fucking talk like that!" I shouted. Man, I was so tense; I would have punched her out to stop her. Mai ignored me, and looked straight ahead. 

"It's…it's time for you to go." She said simply. 

"No. I promised you that I would never let you get hurt, back when Marik destroyed your mind. I failed once, I won't fucking fail again."

"I don't care about your promises. I'm releasing you from it. I don't need to be rescued or saved or anything like that. You want to make me happy, you fucking get out of here and don't look back."

"I'm not till you are." I said. Mai elbowed me again.

"Get moving, kid!" Again with calling me kid. I knew she was really mad with me, but again, I could fucking care less. Not with Mai so close to dying.

"Nope." I said like a dork. "I'm the last one to leave."

"Why won't you let me do this?" She asked. "Why won't you let me do something for good?"

"Because I'm a selfish asshole who always gets what he wants, and I don't want you to die." I said. Maybe this frank bluntness would help, somehow. She smiled, did it work?

"That's not good enough. I want you all to live." Mai returned.

"I want us all to live too, and that includes you." I shot back. 

"Joey…I've never really done anything good with my life. I won't beg for it. Hell, I won't fight for it. I'll fight for yours, because you have a chance not to fuck up." I didn't know what to say, or rather, I knew what to say, but I didn't know how to say it.

I tried to just be frank again. 

"Just because you've messed up doesn't mean you've lost it forever. I would help you until I can't help you anymore to get the life you want." Mai looked at me intently. 

"I've told you before that I don't need any help." 

"Just because you don't need it doesn't mean I don't want to."

"You can want all you want, I'd never take it. I must fight on my own. That's the way I've chosen." She responded. 

"People can change, hearts can change." I said. "Please, Mai. I know you're independent; I want you to be independent, but I want you to live with that independence. What good is pride and strength when you're dead." 

"It just might get me to heaven." She responded. "I'll find out." 

"Not now." I ordered.

"Are you still spouting that shit?" She asked.

"Shit, schmit. Maybe so, but I'm not going to let you just throw away your life like that. I'd…I'd rather fight myself."

"Oh, so I can't kill myself to save you all, but you can?" She asked.

"No…that's not what I mean at all." I said. "It means that that's what I would rather do. I'm…I'm not letting either of us do this. Because of my selfishness, I'm not going to let you hurt yourself, and because I cannot be a hypocrite, I won't stay here in your place. So…" And then, although I'm not sure how I did it, I grabbed Mai by the arms, turned around so that our arms were locked and we were back to back, and I bent my back forward, lifting her off of the ground.

"What the fuck are you doing!" Mai shouted, her legs thrashing in the air. I'm sure the sight must've been hilarious, but now was not the time for laughing as I, with tremendous difficulty, carried the complaining woman I loved more then anything away. 

When I thought we were safe, I put her down, and the first thing she did was slap me across the face. She slapped me so hard that she knocked me down. 

"Asshole!" She shouted, kicking me while I was down. Man, she could be a downright bitch, even when I saved her life. But still, I wasn't complaining. I'd rather take her bitching then putting white roses on her grave. 

When she got tired of beating the crap out of me, I got up and we walked together. 

"Hey look, cherry blossoms." I said, plucking one from the nearby tree. I threaded the beautiful flower into her hair. Before she could talk again.

"Mai, how about this be our flower?" I said, taking another one from the tree and slipping it into the buttonhole of my shirt. Mai didn't say anything, just leaned her head on my shoulder as we walked towards the rising sun. I was so happy she was safe that I wasn't paying attention to the bruises she'd given me, and although I'm sure she'd never say it to me, I'm sure that she was happy we were both safe.

Because both of us had problems in our lives to fix, problems that running away to death wouldn't solve. Problems that we couldn't fix ourselves, and even with Mai's stubborn independence, I was going to help her fix it.


End file.
